Searching

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Liked this more than I was expecting (it's been 'that John Cho film that isn't Columbus' when I've been perusing the release schedule :pac:). There's definitely problems: there's a few red herrings / twists too far as a whodunnit; there's a few parts that kinda stretch the computer screen gimmick (even by US heli chase standards, some of those news images are a tad intrusive!); and really there's not a whole lot of surprises in the material.

Importantly though, it's told well: the opening montage establishes the characters and premise really well (think the - mild spoiler comparison to another film -

opening of Up

, through the medium of the Windows XP desktop), the drama remains straightforward but nicely character focused, and even with a few less convincing twists the central thriller narrative is absolutely engaging. Cho is a talented chap, able to hold much of the film on his own.

The premise also works well throughout aside from the odd lapse in the gimmick. The use of actual, familiar operating systems and apps make it all much more convincing - kudos to the filmmakers for making sequences like 'resetting a Gmail password through an old Yahoo account' the stuff of solid tension. I spent relatively little of the film thinking 'THAT'S NOT HOW THAT PROGRAMME WORKS!' which is a considerable step beyond most portrayals of modern technology in movies! Nice little cinematography decisions like focusing in on certain parts of the screen make sure everything feels visually dynamic.

If I was going to compare it to anything, I wouldn't compare it to other films at all. To me, this is a filmic treatment of the sort of thing we've seen in a few of the more interesting narrative-focused video games in recent years. Games like Her Story, Gone Home, Pony Island, Emily is Alone, Analogue: A Hate Story and quite a few others are all about teasing out stories about people through engaging with an environment, or in several cases an actual faux OS. Her Story in particular is relevant here - a thriller where you have to pick up on cues and hints to unlock further revelations. Hard to tell how much (if at all) Aneesh Chaganty was influenced by games, but really interesting to see storytelling techniques developed in games work their way into another medium!