Anyone remember the Starring John Cho meme? It photoshopped Cho’s face onto popular film posters, as a call for Asian representation. Well, now’s your chance to see Cho in full leading man status, and give it your full support.
Cho stars as a man whose daughter is missing. As he enlists the help of police officer Debra Messing (who was admittedly kinda tough to take serious and she tried to be way too serious to tone down her Grace as opposed to Will persona), he discovers that he may not actually know his daughter as well as he thought. Oh and the whole thing is told over various computer screens.
I am such a sucker for unconventional storytelling, and it was so effective there. This is the movie Unfriended wishes it could be. I feel like without that framework, it wouldn’t stand out from other films in the genre.
At the same time though, it doesn’t use the framework as a gimmick (*cough*cough*Unfriended*cough*). This is an incredibly anxiety-inducing suspenseful thriller. And that’s that I don’t even have a teenage daughter. It’d prolly amp up the stakes for those that do. I was certainly surprised by how it unfolded, but I loved how every detail tracked back once things were revealed.
Oh and in an only in LA story, I went to see this at one of the nicer theaters in town, with some of my Stardust crew. I noticed most of the crowd was particularly excited to be there, and I saw a couple of scattered flower bouquets in the crowd. The movie ends and the credits roll, and I notice a couple people filming the credits. The cast names come up, and the theater erupts with cheers of “Michelle!”. I skim the credits and notice the name of our leading lady daughter is Michelle La. I follow the eyes of the crowd and find that she is sitting two rows behind us, and the place was packed with her family and friends. Walking out, one of my peeps is gushing about the film when this cute little old Asian lady beams to my friend, telling her that it was her niece in the movie. She’s soon joined by another smiling lady who she introduces as Michelle’s Mother.
On top of all that, the Ozark premiere was happening directly across the auditorium, so there’s a non-zero chance Laura Linney and Jason Bateman were nearby. I love this town.
And I loved this movie
Searching – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/