SEARCHING (2018)

Updated: Apr 25, 2019

RATING: 7.5/10✅

Thriller/Action/Drama

In San Jose, California, David Kim looks through old photographs and videos of his daughter Margot and his late wife Pamela, who died from lymphoma nearly two years before, after which David and Margot became distant. One night, Margot goes to a friend's house for her study-group. While David sleeps, Margot attempts to call him three times. The next morning, David is unable to reach Margot but assumes she has risen early and gone to school. Later, he calls Margot's piano instructor, but is informed that Margot had cancelled her lessons six months ago. David discovers that Margot had been pocketing the money for the lessons, before suddenly transferring $2,500 to a deleted account on Venmo. Realizing that Margot is missing, David calls the police, and the case is assigned to Detective Rosemary Vick, who asks for information about Margot's personality and friendships. David manages to access Margot's Facebook and speaks to her contacts, but discovers that Margot has not had close friends since Pamela's death. Vick calls to report that Margot made a fake ID for herself, and shows traffic-camera footage of Margot's car at a highway-juncture outside of the city, suggesting that Margot may have deliberately run away.

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THE FUTURE OF PORTABLE CINEMA

Details:

Directed by: Aneesh Chaganty.

Produced by: Timur Bekmambetov, Sev Ohanian, Natalie Qasabian, Adam Sidman.

Written by: Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian.

Starring: John Cho, Debra Messing.

Music by: Torin Borrowdale.

Cinematography: Juan Sebastian Baron.

Edited by: Nick Johnson, Will Merrick.

Production Company: Bazelevs Company, Screen Gems, Stage 6 Films.

Distributed by: Sony Pictures Releasing.

Release Date: January 21, 2018.

Running Time: 102 minutes.

Country: United States.

Language: English.

Budget: $1 million.

Box office: $75.5 million.

Production

The idea of the film was initially conceived as an 8 minute short film. When Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian pitch the concept to The Bazelevs Company, they declined their offer to make it a short and instead gave them the offer to make it into a movie. While Ohanian was very open to the offer, Chaganty was hesitant since he believed a movie would be stretching the concept and feel too gimmicky. But after coming up with the intro, they felt like the concept for the movie would work. The character, Rosemary Vick, was named after Rosemary's Baby and The Shield's character Vic Mackey.

Actor John Cho turned down the role of David Kim at first due to Cho's belief that the movie would not be doable.

Filming

The film was shot over various devices. These include GoPros, drone helicopters, news helicopters, mini dv cameras, webcams, and even director Aneesh Chaganty's iPhone, which became the main camera. The scenes between Cho's David Kim and Debra Messing's Rosemary Vick were all shot in one house, with Cho on one side of the house and Messing at the other. Actress Michelle La described the filming process as a "logistical nightmare".