Culture Crash: A Review of the Thriller, “Missing”

The 2018 movie Searching starring John Cho used a novel concept to ignite its mystery thriller plot: everything the audience saw was taking place on a screen. We’d watch as he texted from his computer and pulled up various websites and, through all of that, we’d see the story unfold.

I think it was a great idea and featured a great performance from Cho, but something about it just didn’t fully land with me. That’s why I was excited when I heard a new, standalone sequel version of that concept, starring Storm Reid and titled Missing, was being made.

Missing uses the same screen-only approach to tell the story of June as she searches for her mother and her mother’s boyfriend after they vanish on a trip to Colombia. Everything about Missing’s production seems a little bit improved upon from the original Searching, and it cleverly uses new technologies like a smartwatch interface to keep audiences on their toes and invent new ways of showing off standard set-pieces.

Like Searching, Missing does have a plot that goes a little off the deep end, telling a story worthy of a season finale of Law and Order or something, but it does it in a truly fun and original way, centering Storm Reid, a really exciting young actress, at the center of its many screens.

Through FaceTime, iMessage, smartwatches, and livestream footage, Missing is a movie that’s just a blast to watch and never lets its foot off the gas… and even better, Missing is now streaming on Netflix, where it’s being seen by audiences all over the country.