by Jack Bottomley
If you never had the time to check out Aneesh Chaganty’s thriller Searching, we really urge you to do so at your earliest convenience. Searching is up there with Rob Savage’s Host as one of the best films in what has now been called the ‘screenlife’ subgenre. However, in the trend of any good subgenre worth its mettle, we simply need to have a sequel (see the Unfriended films), so here is Will Merrick and Nick Johnson’s Missing.
Setting itself largely apart, Missing sees teen June (Storm Reid) and her mother Grace (Nia Long) slowly drifting further and further apart with every passing year after her dad’s death over a decade ago. Her mum has met a new guy though, and is giving her daughter some freedom as she heads with him on a romantic getaway to Colombia. But when she fails to meet June at the airport a week later, and June hears nothing from her, so begins an investigation that will not only shake June to the core but become a huge social media true-life phenomenon.
Missing is a nail biting follow-up to the phenomenal 2018 film, that is constructed entirely for the true crime mystery Netflix drama binge-watching age. Sev Ohanian & Aneesh Chaganty’s story and Merrick & Johnson’s screenplay is tightly wound at so many points that you may find yourself leaning forward in your cinema seat, with a breathless fixation on every chime of the phone, every ping of the message board and every beat of this Gen Z tech-driven thriller narrative.
The first film was undeniably tidier, as Missing does unleash some mighty big twists and turns, at points stretching the very credulity it successfully builds overall, and maybe having one reveal too many, but – despite threatening to – it never comes off the rails, and even with some more Hollywood-like climactic beats, remains an engaging story of motherhood, secrets and trust, that (like the first) is painstakingly assembled through a storm of inventive multimedia technology. There is also a worthwhile look at how social media jumps to its own conclusions, makes its own infectious false narratives and is just basically a terrible place to be, especially in times of crisis.
Storm Reid is outstanding at the head of the cast, and her relationship with her mum feels real, and even when some of the later developments set in, you are sold on this bond and love. There is also a very impressive standout performance by Joaquim de Almeida as the loveable Javi, a Colombian gig worker who has a story of his own that develops nicely.
The cinema experience was made for a mad rollercoaster ride like this, and you won’t regret signing up for it! So log on, sit back and get your detective cap on…or, whatever trendy headgear the kids wear now, because, on this evidence, this thriller series could run until the battery wears out.
Missing is out in UK cinemas from Friday 21st April
