Movie Review

Searching makes smart use of technology for modern mystery

At first glance, the filmmaking technique of Searching seems to be an unnecessarily distancing one. Literally every second of the film is viewed as if looking at a computer screen, so that none of the actors ever appear to be acting for the camera. It’s the same technique utilized by the Unfriended horror movie series, which is produced by the same company, Bazelevs Production.

This time, instead of trying to scare the audience, they’ve turned to a mystery, with arguably much better results. John Cho plays David Kim, who, along with his daughter, Margot (Michelle La), is struggling to get by after the untimely death of his wife, Pamela (Sara Sohn). The struggle gets even more difficult when Margot goes missing after a late-night study group.

Desperate to find his daughter, David tries to track her movements using the best resources available — her computer and the Internet. With the help of the detective assigned to the case, Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing), he doggedly pursues every clue he can find, often coming up with answers to questions he didn’t know he should have.

Perhaps it’s the ubiquitousness of being on a computer or a smartphone every day, but after a settling-in period, the film seems to give the audience a perceived sense of control. Writer/director Aneesh Chaganty, along with co-writer Sev Ohanian, do an amazing job of making the act of clicking around and typing on a computer seem as compelling as any traditional narrative could be.

They’re helped by a variety of video options available, most notably Facetime. Although slightly unbelievable — does anyone actually use Facetime on a computer? — its usage allows the filmmakers to give the characters just enough, well, face time so that the story retains the requisite emotion.

The believability factor is upped even more by the film, with one notable exception, using real websites and devices instead of fake ones like many other movies do. It’s much easier to put yourself in the shoes of the characters when they’re using Google or scrolling through Facebook and Instagram on their Macbook or iPhone.

Best of all, though, the filmmakers don’t let the gimmick of the film get in the way of telling a good story. The twists and turns it takes throughout the course of its 102-minute running time are as surprising and effective as any conventional film, and perhaps even more so given the setting.

Much has been made about the all-Asian cast of Crazy Rich Asians, but there’s something even more notable about having an Asian family at the center of a movie like this. Their ethnicity is a minor but still important element of the film, and thanks to the performances of Cho, La, and Sohn, the situations they experience are as close to universal as you can get.

Though it might not age well given the speed that the world changes, Searching is an of-the-moment film, one that makes great use of modern-day technology to tell an enthralling story.

John Cho in Searching.

John Cho in Searching

Photo by Elizabeth Kitchens

John Cho in Searching.

hoop it up

Houston festival hosts dramatic reading of basketball-inspired TV show

cinema arts festival hoopztown reading

Photo by Trent Wittenbach

Hoopzdreams tells the story of a gifted, multiracial athelete.

This year’s Houston Cinema Arts Festival (HCAF), which starts this Thursday, November 6, offers plenty of film screenings – both feature-length films and shorts – as well as panel discussions, Q&As, workshops, etc. But the fest will also have a staged reading of the TV pilot Hoopztown, this Saturday at 2 pm at Six Foot Studios.

Hoopztown centers around Maya Hernandez, a gifted, multiracial athlete on track to be considered for the inaugural WNBA in 1996. She moves back to her hometown of Houston, where it’s revealed that her mother, a janitor at Houston Medical Center, is diagnosed with cancer.

The project is created and written by Fleurette S. Fernando, an educator, director, choreographer, arts administrator, and founding director of the M.A. in Arts Leadership Program at University of Houston, where she serves as an associate professor. “I wrote this story for the women in my life; my mother, my sisters, my teachers, my colleagues, my girlfriends, my students and particularly for my daughter,” says Fernando. “Her journey as a student athlete and the relationships she built with the girls on her various teams through the turbulent and magical years of her youth was an inspiration.”

hoopztown Fleurette S. Fernando Elizabeth Sosa Bailey Collaborators Elizabeth Sosa Bailey and Fleurette S. Fernando.Courtesy of Elizabeth Sosa Bailey

Hoopztown has gone through multiple iterations. During the 2015 ATX TV Festival Pitch Competition, Fernando was a finalist for her concept of the project. From there, the pilot (originally titled Hoopz) and loglines for a 10-episode run were put into motion. That first episode, titled “Rebound,” focuses on Maya’s first day at her new job, coaching a girls’ basketball team at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school.

“Hoopztown is an ode to a woman’s journey through the lens of many races, ages and circumstances,” she says. “It’s a tribute to the underdog and a homage to a woman’s perilous path through a man’s world. Nowhere is this struggle more acutely demonstrated, mentally, emotionally, physically and economically, than in the arena of competitive sports in America.”

Since Fernando and her creative partner, Elizabeth Sosa Bailey, are both active members of

the Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) board, they knew they had to do a reading during this year’s fest.

“There is so much of myself that I see in this story, as someone who left a career to return home when my father was diagnosed with cancer and as a mixed race Latina understanding the duality of identity,” says Sosa Bailey. “Even the high school that Hoopztown is set in is much like my own. I attended Lamar High School, making me about a decade younger than the characters in the story. There are all of these wonderful little coincidences in Hoopztown.”

The project is a beneficiary of its second Houston Arts Alliance grant made possible through the

City of Houston Mayors Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA). The reading cast includes over 20 actors, with Eva Marie Thomas playing the main role. Open to the public with a Pay What You Can ticket structure, the event invites the audience to experience the first run-through of what is slated to be the first episode, filmed in Houston using local cast and crew. The audience can also provide feedback and contribute to the project’s fundraising initiative to get to the next stage of filming.

For tickets, go to the Houston Cinema Arts Festival website.

performing-arts tv festivals

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