DVDs of the week

THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST (CERT 15) £9.99 SEARCHING (CERT 12) £9.99

Cameron Post (Chloe Grace Moretz) prepares to attend her high school’s homecoming dance with her date Jamie (Dalton Harrod) but she would rather be partying with female friend Coley (Quinn Shephard). The two girls are discovered in a passionate embrace by Jamie, which forces Cameron’s deeply religious guardian Ruth (Kerry Butler) to pursue a radical course of action. Ruth sends Cameron to a conversion centre called God’s Promise overseen by fearsome therapist Dr Lydia March (Jennifer Ehle), who claims her practices help teenagers to rediscover the path to heterosexuality. During group therapy sessions, Dr Marsh encourages youngsters to confront their confusion. “Maybe you’re supposed to feel disgusted with yourself when you’re a teenager,” counters cannabis-smoking misfit Jane Fonda (Sasha Lane). As Cameron’s treatment unfolds, she questions Dr Marsh’s programme. Anchored by a quietly compelling performance from Moretz, The Miseducation of Cameron Post chronicles the damage wrought by a gay conversion therapy camp with compassion and wit. Acerbic humour is deftly employed to cut through the tension between staff and patients (known as disciples), emboldened by a purse-lipped supporting turn from Ehle. One character’s tragic narrative arc begs comparisons with Dead Poets Society and is clearly telegraphed but their suffering is deeply upsetting, even when we are braced for impact.

David Kim (John Cho) loses his beloved wife Pamela (Sara Sohn) to cancer. He struggles to articulate his grief to their daughter Margot (Michelle La). Late one night, while he is asleep, David misses two telephone calls and a video call request from his daughter. The next morning, Margot is missing and David’s concern turns into terror. He contacts the police and Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) is assigned to the case. A trawl through Facebook and other websites reveals that the father doesn’t know his girl very well. The case gains media attention and everyone with a smart device contributes to the debate using competing hashtags #FindMargot and #DadDidIt. Tapping into timely concerns about cyberbullying and social media peer pressure, Searching is a smartly executed thriller which unfolds in overlapping windows on a desktop computer screen. Writer-director Aneesh Chaganty’s sleek picture tests the bond between a parent and child in a 24-hour digital age where appearances can be dangerously deceptive. Cho is on screen for almost the entire 98 minutes, cleverly creating the illusion of a multi-layered investigation unfolding in real-time. Chaganty and co-writer Sev Ohanian hardwire the plot with satisfying twists although they tip the wink too early to one potentially lucrative line of inquiry.