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SEARCHING A father turns internet sleuth to find his daughter in this year’s must-see thriller…
Unfriended, Open Windows, The Den… there’s no shortage of films set on computer screens. There’s also no shortage of bad films set on computer screens, something debut director Aneesh Chaganty was acutely aware of when he started work on Searching, a missing person thriller that unfolds entirely on digital displays. “We had seen those other movies, but didn’t like them,” an enthusiastic and bracingly honest Chaganty tells Teasers. “I feel weird saying that, because the production company who made Unfriended financed this movie… but fuck it!”
After watching “every single thing ever made that took place on a screen” and bemoaning their failure to engage emotionally, Chaganty and his writing/producing partner Sev Ohanian (Fruitvale Station) had a lightbulb moment, devising a devastating opening montage that’s Up-meets-Google-commercial as it tracks the digital footprint of a family from the birth of their first daughter to the premature death of the mother.
“All of a sudden, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, there are characters here, there are stories here,’” Chaganty smiles. “From then we knew this movie was about the fact that, in a world where everything is so connected, there’s a dad and a daughter who are disconnected.”
Said dad and daughter are David and Margot Kim, played by Star Trek’s John Cho and newcomer Michelle La. When Margot goes missing, David turns to the internet to find her. Utilising Facebook, FaceTime and others, his investigation escalates in unexpected ways, though to reveal any of the film’s secrets would be doing the shock-a-minute script a disservice.
Accepted knowledge may dictate that texting, googling and skyping aren’t ‘cinematic’, but Searching circumvents this issue by making its internet indistinguishable from the one we log onto every day. “We wanted to avoid a version where he’s using ‘FaceSpace’,” laughs Ohanian. To achieve this, every site featured was meticulously recreated as it looked from 11-13 May 2016
– the three-day period over which the film is set – and then animated on After Effects, with Chaganty performing every cursor movement himself for authenticity. The result is a wholly immersive experience that feels like it could be happening on the screen you sit in front of every day.
The results also speak for themselves, the film scooping a coveted Audience Award at this year’s Sundance. Up next for Chaganty and Ohanian – a thriller called Run. “It’s about a mother and a daughter, and their very, very twisted relationship. It’ll probably be the darkest thing we ever make,” reveals Chaganty. “People keep asking if technology plays a role. At one point one of the characters goes on a computer to search for information they desperately need, but the internet’s disconnected. So that’s the role it plays: no role!”
ETA | 31 AUGUST / SEARCHING OPENS NEXT MONTH.