Searching                            4 stars

One of the most original movies to come along lately is Searching which is in theaters now.  It stars John Cho as a widowed father whose teenage daughter has mysteriously gone missing and it is up to him and one police detective to find out what happened to her.  The hunt leads him into the world of his daughter’s social media stored on her computer where he finds out he did not know his daughter very well.  The original aspect is that the movie is told entirely on the screens of computers, smart phones and cameras.  We never see any of the characters in the normal way seen in most movies.  Though there have been many films centered around phones and social media, Searching takes it a step further and does an admirable job of it.  The method of presentation is also aided by having an interesting story that slowly unfolds in front of us as well as some excellent acting from John Cho and Debra Messing who plays the police detective.  I hope it’s not giving anything away if I say things are not what they appear in this movie.  This is a first effort by Screenwriter and Director Aneesh Chaganty.  This 25 year old quit his job in order to make this movie after making commercials for Google.  It looks like he has a promising career ahead of him.