SEARCHING
PG-13, 102 minutes. Through tonight only at Westbrook. The eeriest scene in the gripping techno-whodunit “Searching” consists of little more than a computer screensaver, glowing silently in the dark like a jellyfish. A series of incoming call notifications pop up on the screen, but the computer’s owner, David Kim (John Cho), is asleep and thus unaware that his teenage daughter, Margot (Michelle La), is desperately trying to reach him. The moment takes on layers of Hitchcockian dread and a paralyzing sense of helplessness: Thanks to bad luck and human error, not even the devices that connect us 24/7 can tell us everything we want to know. The dubious paradoxes of internet technology — its power to inform and deceive, to connect and alienate — are at the heart of this ingeniously high-concept thriller from the 27-year-old writer-director Aneesh Chaganty. A Bay Area native and former Google employee making a sharp, confident feature debut, — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
A SIMPLE FAVOR
R, 117 minutes. Through tonight only at Niantic and Mystic Luxury Cinemas. Still playing at Stonington, Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon. Comedy director Paul Feig tries a thriller on for size with the juicy “A Simple Favor,” a suburban Connecticut murder mystery that’s “Gone Girl” meets “The Stepford Wives.” Based on the novel by Darcey Bell, written by Jessica Sharzer, the consciously campy “A Simple Favor” is as bright and bracing as an ice cold gin martini with a lemon twist, and just as satisfying. Anna Kendrick stars as Stephanie, a mommy vlogger raising her son, Miles (Joshua Satine), on her own after her husband’s tragic death in a car accident. Shunned by the other parents (a gloriously catty trio played by Andrew Rannells, Aparna Nancherla and Kelly McCormack), she takes up with the glamorous, elusive and mysterious Emily Nelson (Blake Lively), mostly because their kids want a play date. Thirsty for attention, she agrees to slurp down afternoon martinis. As the sexy, stylish Emily, Lively is at her best. The role offers her a chance to try on a deliciously naughty performance while playing on her flair for fashion. Decked from head to toe in three-piece suits, Emily cuts a seductive and serpentine figure. She snares Stephanie into her web the same way she snagged her husband, the dashing novelist Sean (Henry Golding), with a potent mixture of sensuality and secrets. Kendrick’s schtick has started to wear thin, but in “A Simple Favor” it suits her character perfectly, as the ever-chipper can-do Stephanie, who has a penchant for Peter Pan collars and pom-poms. When Emily goes missing, leaving her son Nicky in the care of Stephanie, her new best friend of a few weeks, she pours all her energy into caring for Emily’s family and searching for her missing friend. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
SMALLFOOT
1/2 PG, 96 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. When If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as the saying goes. That seems to be the approach taken by the screenwriters of the new animated feature “Smallfoot.” The story is actually “Bigfoot,” but it hinges on a clever reversal of perspective, centering on a tribe of Yetis in the Himalayas who fear the dreaded unknown creature known to them as Smallfoot. The mysterious beings clad their feet in leather cases with ridged soles. They carry rolls of soft white paper in zippered satchels. That’s right, Smallfoot is human, and the notion of taking a storied monster like Bigfoot and making him the hero, and humans the monster, is the fun of the movie, based on the book “Yeti Tracks” by Sergio Pablos. The film is co-written and co-directed by Karey Kirkpatrick (“Over the Hedge”), while Jason Reisig co-directs, with Clare Sera, John Requa, and Glenn Ficarra as co-writers. The story itself is one we’ve seen before,