Searching (2018) (25/25)

John Cho plays a single father whose teenaged daughter goes missing in Searching, and like any halfway decent father he spends all his time trying to find her. But this is the 21st century, and the search begins online, where his investigation turns up totally unexpected revelations about what his daughter has been doing, who she’s been talking to, how many friends she has (or rather, doesn’t), and why she’s got a bank account full of money.

The story of Searching would be compelling on its own, but director Aneesh Chaganty also chooses to convey the entire narrative on his protagonist’s computers and smartphones, highlighting just how much we all live on the internet and just how many secrets can be mined from exploring social media, photographs, and contacts of the people we love, and the people we thought we knew. Impossibly clever narrative tricks are employed to keep the gimmick fresh throughout, and in the end, they make this ripping thriller seem practically poignant, as it reflects the increasingly shifting way human beings communicate, relate, and learn.