08.23.18

PW OPINION PW NEWS PW LIFE PW ARTS
•FILM•
BY JANA J. MONJI
John Cho in Searching
CAPSULE REVIEWS
BY CARL KOZLOWSKI
Parental Nightmare
THE INNOVATIVE THRILLER ‘SEARCHING’ IS GROUNDBREAKING BOTH
IN ITS VISUALS AND CASTING
Do you think you know your teenage kids? How many friends
of theirs can you name? What would you do if you found out
your child went missing and you couldn’t think of a single
name or number for their social circle, then learned that every one
of their social media pages was turned to private?
That very real dilemma forms the intriguing and disturbing
starting point for the terrific and innovative new thriller “Searching,”
which is the first major studio film to be told entirely through the use
of visuals seen on technology screens like Skype, Facetime, home
video cameras, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The film follows a
widowed Asian-American father named David Kim (John Cho), whose
16-year-old daughter Margot (Michelle La) seems like the perfect kid
and student until she drops off the face of the Earth after claiming to
be at an all-night study group.
The two have always been close, but they have spent the past few
years dancing around the sad fact that Margot’s mom Pamela died of
cancer. Unbeknownst to David, Margot has retreated into a YouTubestyle
live-streaming site in which she pours her heart out to a few
seemingly random online friends each night, while slipping away from
her real-life friends.
When she doesn’t come home from the alleged study group and
continues to be missing for a day, David has to figure out her entire
personal life from scratch. Calling in the cops, he is assigned nonnonsense
missing-persons ace Detective Vick (Debra Messing in a
total 180 from her classic comedic turn on “Will & Grace”) and is led
down a dizzying array of online rabbit holes in a desperate search to
figure out if she’s run away, been assaulted, or gotten into nefarious
criminal activity.
The resulting search is a complete and total nail-biter, with one
shocking possibility after another seeming to be the certain end and
then being disproven. This is the rare thriller, akin to the 2014 masterpiece
“Gone Girl,” that will keep you completely astonished all the
way to the end.
“Searching” is remarkable not only for its groundbreaking visual
style and its sterling script by Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian, but
also for being the first major studio thriller to ever star an Asian-
American actor as the lead character. Cho has long been a successful,
steady presence, having starred as Harold in the cult classic comedy
trilogy of “Harold and Kumar” films as well as portraying Sulu in the
latest trilogy of “Star Trek” films.
But stepping front and center in this film, he has to keep viewers
focused in the unique visual settings while also displaying a powerful
and nuanced array of emotions. The film’s zippy and touching opening
sequence relays the family’s history through Pamela’s death in a way
that recalls the wonderful opening sequence in the Pixar animated
classic “Up,” but Cho has to keep the magic going almost entirely on
his own the rest of the way.
Messing is almost unrecognizable as Detective Vick, eschewing
the humorous pizazz of her beloved Grace character for a steely and
intense performance that provides a rare showcase for her dramatic
skills.
And bringing it all together is co-writer Aneesh Chaganty, who
noted at a pre-premiere screening talk that he and a team of several
friends spent five years conceiving the elaborately intricate approach
and then had to shoot it independently on a low budget because no
one had tried it before.
The result became a Sundance Film Festival sensation, leading to
a dream deal with the Screen Gems division of Sony Pictures. Following
fast on the heels of the massive success of “Crazy Rich Asians,”
this is proof positive that a long-overdue Asian invasion is finally hitting
American movie theatres, and will hopefully never stop. n
GRADE: A
CRAZY RICH ASIANS
Stars: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle
Yeoh
Length: 120 minutes
Directed by: Jon M. Chu
Rating: PG13
The romantic comedy that's kicking open the
doors of Hollywood for Asian-American talent,
"Asians" is possibly the best romantic comedy
of the century so far. The story of an American
woman who was raised poor falling for the
scion of a mega-rich Singapore dynasty and
the socioeconomic clashes that ensue is both
hilarious and touching and lavish to behold.
Grade: A
BLACKKKLANSMAN
Stars: John David Washington, Adam Driver
Length: 135 minutes
Directed by: Spike Lee
Rating: R
Spike Lee's huge comeback marks what might
be his best and most commercial film ever: an
audaciously funny and exciting true-life story
about an African-American cop in Colorado
Springs who teams with a Jewish policeman to
infiltrate and destroy a dangerous Ku Klux Klan
chapter. One of the year's best. Grade: A
THE MEG
Stars: Jason Statham, Bingbing Li, Rainn Wilson
Length: 113 minutes
Directed by: Jon Turteltaub
Rating: PG13
This utterly ridiculous yet undeniably funny
and exciting thriller follows a team of scientists
who try to track down and destroy a 90-footlong
prehistoric shark before it can massacre
thousands of beachgoers. This is a fun senduphomage
to "Jaws" and is one of the funnest
surprises of summer. Grade: A
EIGHTH GRADE
Stars: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton
Length: 93 minutes
Directed by: Bo Burnham
Rating: R
This intensely intimate dramedy sees life from
the eyes and mind of an awkward girl enduring
the travails of her last week in eighth grade. Elsie
Fisher pulls off a performance for the ages and
deserves an Oscar nomination as a girl fending
off creepy boys, learning to be more loving to
her single dad, and standing up for herself.
Writer-director Bo Burnham has accomplished a
masterpiece in his debut effort. Grade: A
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE:
FALLOUT
Stars: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Michelle
Monaghan
Length: 147 minutes
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
Rating: PG-13
Tom Cruise raises the bar on action movies by
miles, in a film that's packed with non-stop
action and in which he HALO skydives, flies a
helicopter on a chase through mountain passes,
speeds a motorcycle through the streets of Paris
and much more while trying to keep plutonium
out of the hands of a ruthless band of terrorists.
Defying a world in which every action movie
is rooted in CGI, this film's old-school dazzling
showmanship must be seen on as big a screen
as possible. Grade: A
30 PASADENA WEEKLY | 08.23.18