As we learned thousands of years ago with the myth of Prometheus, technology can be both a gift and a curse. Regardless of how old you are, dear reader, think of all the scientific advancements there have been in your lifetime. The biggest and most influential of the past few decades has got to be the internet which, again, is both a gift and a curse.
On the one hand, you have access to almost all the knowledge of human history in the palm of your hand thanks to smartphones. On the other hand, think how many times you’ve gone down the rabbit hole, sucked in by article after article, meme after meme, clickbait after clickbait.
That’s the world we live in now, as so expertly portrayed in “Missing,” a new mystery thriller by the team who brought us “Searching” in 2018 and “Run” in 2020, all films that show how much you know you’re way around Google and Facebook could help solve a potential murder.
And the kicker with both “Searching” and “Missing” is that the entire movie takes place through the point of view of a laptop or smartphone screen, something many of us use every day. Although done several times before, “Missing” continues to push the tired found-footage genre by making that all-screen gimmick a tool for clever storytelling and an exciting thrill ride of mystery and discovery.
When her overprotective mother (played by Nia Long) disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, high schooler June (Storm Reid) searches for answers the best she can while hindered by international red tape.
Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips and her knowledge of the internet and social media to try to learn who her boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung) really is and find her mom before it is too late.
As she digs deeper, June’s digital sleuthing, with the assistance of her best friend Veena (Megan Suri) and a for-hire Colombian, Javi (Joaquim de Almeida), just raises more questions than answers, discovering that she may have never known her mom’s past at all.
With a Generation Z protagonist utilizing everything from TikTok to Instagram to a dozen other apps I didn’t know existed, the movie does have a younger audience in mind when mapping out exactly how June is going to solve this case. Because showing and telling are so intertwined with this medium, the general idea of using Google and email is straightforward enough, but audience members who aren’t the most proficient in today’s tech may get lost in some details.
Thankfully, the cast does a terrific job of selling the emotional side of this story. June is on screen for almost the entire runtime with her face often filling the screen, so Reid can’t shy away from utilizing the best special effect there is — the close-up. And when the plot twists start popping up and the dramatic reveals start to unfold, her know-it-all teen persona breaks, showing just what a wonderful young actor Reid is.
Even though this is meant to look like it’s all happening authentically on a screen, this entire production is one huge special effect. Yes, each individual cell phone video and Facebook page and Google search were done, but those hundreds of snippets have to be processed and edited together to make it look like they’re all happening in the same space, which is a testament to the whole production and tech teams putting them together seamlessly.
As impressive as all that is, the story itself is pretty cliché and predictable, falling into soap opera territory by the end. For better or worse, the filmmakers at least acknowledge it by having this movie and the previous two satirized as episodes in a true-crime series, poking fun at how much people love these types of real-life mysteries.
Despite being occasionally confusing or cliché in its execution, “Missing” is a wonderful addition to the unofficial anthology of works by writer/producer Aneesh Chaganty and a worthwhile directorial debut by Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick, the editors on “Searching” and “Run,” which was directed by Chaganty. At the rate of technological advances, who knows what their next installment could bring?
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