The ‘Research’ follow-up to the original – Deadline
sleeper hit 2018, seekAnd Show you can create an effective edge-of-your-seat mystery movie told exclusively through the use of screens that dominate our daily lives in this century. It starred John Chu as a father whose 16-year-old daughter goes missing, leading him to use all the internet tools to try and retrace her steps to find her. pursue it, MissingAnd In fact, he improves on that idea with a different story and cast of characters, and takes it several leaps forward in creating a suspenseful picture that looks like what a filmmaker like Hitchcock might have made had he been an IT genius as well.
Watch seek, Directed and written (with Sev Ohanian) by Aneesh Chaganty, I kept thinking how the real stars of the piece were the film’s editors who had to piece together a jigsaw puzzle in order to create a coherent story. It makes sense then that it would be a Writing/directing the reins Missing They were delivered to these two seek Editors, Will Merrick and Nicholas D. Johnson. Not only did they live up to the spirit of excellence they helped revive, they took it to a new level.
At its core, this is an old-fashioned, worn-out detective story for a contemporary audience that will totally relate to the idea of a movie told solely from POV screens, whether on our phones, computers, security cameras, TV sets, clocks, and all sorts of technological devices with screens spying on us over the course of time. The time is 7 days a week. He’s the big brother in the extreme, and the franchise’s super-smart alter ego is as fresh as they come, even using a TV series in the midst of it all called Unreal This cleverly mirrors the real story as it unfolds..
The main plot centers on June (Storm Reed), a young woman discovers her mother, Grace (Nia Long) is on a vacation trip to Colombia with her new boyfriend, Kevin, after meeting him on an online dating service.
When she cannot be contacted by normal means, June begins to panic, and the use of her computer gadgets and other devices slowly reveals some uncomfortable truths, not only about Kevin after his emails and texts are hacked, but also about her mother herself, who may not be be exactly as i thought. The plot becomes quite complex, as details of June’s life are also revealed in flashbacks, where we see that she lost her father James (Tim Griffin) at a very young age, and then was raised by single mother Grace.
Along the way, she enlists the help of her mom’s best friend, Heather (Amy Landecker), her BFF Veena (Megan Surrey), and a Colombian guy she befriends on the net named Javi (Joaquim de Almeida) who becomes integral to tracking down her. Couple when the search points directly to some specific tourist places in colombia.
Later, as despondency sets in, she reaches out to FBI agent Park (Daniel Henney), as the missing American woman becomes fodder for the feds, as well as critics online, when the story gets out.
To say more, or add any spoilers, would be an extremely reckless act, so I’ll leave it at that, except to say the visual style and crack-jack editing by the new cutting team of Austin Keeling and Ariel Zakowski, not to mention a reasonably well-crafted screenplay and good acting, all make This movie is a very entertaining movie for a generation that is addicted to their devices.
It helps to have such a compelling lead in Reid, who carries the movie with ease, with help from Always Long (also seen this week in Netflix’s you people). Leung, who keeps us guessing as to whether he’s a good or bad guy, and Griffin, who shows real range like her dad. De Almeida was also a powerful presence in his few scenes. The producers are Ohanian, Chaganty, and Natalie Qasabian. Timur Bekmambetov returns as executive producer.
Sony Pictures on Friday launched Stage 6 Films and Screen Gems production.