When a Mother Disappears, Her Daughter Does Some Digital Sleuthing

Storm Reid in "Missing"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

In 2018, Aneesh Chaganty made a splash with his feature-filmmaking debut, “Searching,” a thriller about a father looking for his daughter that takes place all on computer screens and smartphones.  What resulted was a pulse-pounding, race-against-time film where the innovative approach wasn’t a gimmick in the least, but one that told a story about its characters in an intriguing new way.

Now, Will Merrick and Nick Johnson, who were the editors of “Searching,” as well as Chaganty’s second movie, “Run,” make their own filmmaking debuts with the standalone sequel, “Missing.”  Although “Searching” stands as the superior of the two, Merrick and Johnson’s film nevertheless has plenty of thrills to absorb you in its computer-screen labyrinth.

When June Allen (Storm Reid) has the house to herself when her mother Grace (Nia Long) and her boyfriend, Kevin (Ken Leung) go on vacation, she’s ready to have the time of her life before leaving for college.  However, when Grace and Kevin don’t return from their trip, June fears the worst.  With very few options as to what she can do, June must search through Grace and Kevin’s online accounts to figure out what happened before it’s too late.

Reid gives a tense, emotional performance as someone who’s quick with her ingenuity in her quest to uncover the truth.  Reid’s display of her character’s unwavering determination and techno-knowhow to find her mother and Kevin keeps you hooked to the story as she tries to hold out for hope.  It’s engaging work as we see her dig through her mom and Kevin’s accounts and trying to understand what she discovers, all while having to keep herself together when the worst-case scenarios enter her mind and things become much more difficult.

Except for a few aspects in the last 20 minutes that stretch the film’s believability a bit, the film does fine work in disclosing details little by little that lead to one enticing breakthrough after another.  It’s a maze of reveals that are spaced out well enough to let us digest one of them before we’re hit with the next.  Aside from the initial search, this film offers an interesting role reversal of what we saw in “Searching,” whereby this time, we have a child looking for their parent.  With this aspect, we get a look at the strained relationship between June and Grace and what has caused that tension to endure over the years.  This allows us to become emotionally invested in June’s investigation as we also deal with the urgency of her scenario.

The cinematography by Steven Holleran makes full use of the film’s computer and cell phones screens as we feverishly look around for clues in the different windows that are on display.  The apprehension is amplified by how we move across the screens of these devices, whether it’s slow zooms in and out or slow pans, and we’re glued to what’s happening on these devices.  The way in which Holleran’s able to navigate these movements shows that he has full confidence in juggling the intricate visuals of the webpages.  Another notable way in which he creates suspense is how when June isn’t in the frame and we follow the cursor in closeup, it acts as an extension of her character and how she’s feeling, which we can detect through the urgency and hesitation of the cursor’s movements in these moments.

Given how Merrick and Johnson worked as editors for “Searching,” they know how to make a thriller that moves at a can’t-catch-your-breath pace.  They’ve taken their experience from working on that film and bring us one that maintains a lot of what made the first movie so good.  It’s clear that they learned a lot from working with Chaganty, and it’s their mastery of this technique that has me excited for whatever they might do next.

Just as Chaganty did with “Searching,” Merrick and Johnson prove to be talented filmmakers with “Missing.”  While working in the confines of small screens that are placed on the big screen, they continue Chaganty’s novel filmmaking style to create an entertaining trek through online secrets, offering you a techno puzzle that you won’t be able to resist trying to solve.

Grade: A-