Missing is the latest Screenlife movie and a thriller/mystery that had my heart pumping through the last act! The previous Screenlife films include the horror movie, Unfriended (2014) and Searching (2018) the family thriller. A film story told through computers, cell phones, security cameras, and news reports is a fascinating cinema style; a new way to engage theater audiences and involve them into the narrative.
Screenlife is championed by filmmaker, Timur Bekmambetov, who was producer of the previous movies and executive producer for this film. The directors and screenwriters, Nick Johnson and Will Merrick, were editors for Searching. The story is by Aneesh Chaganty, who co-wrote and directed Searching, and his co-writer, Sev Ohanian. It is April 13, 2008, we see in a home movie, a family, father, James (Tim Griffin), and his young daughter, June (Ava Zaria Lee). Griffin also starred in the action comedy, Central Intelligence (2016).
They are interrupted by mother, Grace (Nia Long), the actress starred in the romantic comedy, Look Both Ways (2022). James’ nose started to bleed and the video is paused. We see a search about brain tumors and mother and daughter move from Texas to Los Angeles. The older June (Storm Reid), now eighteen, is watching an episode of a true crime show, “The Disappearance of Margot Kim”, this is the character from Searching. It was set in San Jose, California.
Reid played Tyla, the daughter of Bloodsport in The Suicide Squad (2021). June is on her phone texting with her friend, Veena (Megan Suri), who is asking to send money for her brother. Suri was Aneesa in the comedy show, Never Have I Ever. While this is all going on, she gets a FaceTime from her mother who says, “Siri, call June.” Grace Allen is leaving Junebug, her term of endearment, money for emergencies during her trip. June sends the emergency money to Veena so she can buy beer.
At the doorway, Kevin Lin (Ken Leung) is dragging a luggage stroller for his trip with Grace. Leung was in the horror thriller, Old (2021). June's mother reminds her to pick her up on Monday at LAX. Grace leaves a text about loving June and the reply is a thumbs up emoji. She sees her mother and Kevin leave through her doorbell app. Veena is about to bring in the beer, but Heather (Amy Landecker), her mother’s friend and lawyer, stops by to check on June. Landecker was Mrs. MacKenzie in The Handmaid’s Tale series.
This moves into the weekend with parties at the beach and pool while June gets texts from the vacation in Colombia. She gets drunk at her house party on the 19th, Father’s Day, and gets sick. Later, she is in bed, watching the family video. She sees a family photo and cuts away her mother from the photo. It is Monday, the 20th, the day June has to meet her mother at the airport. She uses TaskRabbit to pay for housekeeping while she goes to the pick up. June sets up her phone to record herself as she has a cardboard sign she made as a joke reading, “Welcome Back From Prison Mom.”
It is hours later and her mother never shows up at the airport after the flight’s passengers have gotten their luggage. This probably taps into the fear of a teenager, dealing with a protective parent, but then have a lost parent. June is desperate and searches for Cartagena, Colombia. Then, she finds the vacation hotel, Hotel Poma Rosa. June calls up the desk clerk, but her Spanish is not up to the conversation so she hurriedly translates what she wants to say online.
I think this clever to see as a story point. The clerk says that the two tourists left with their suitcases. June asks about security camera footage, but the clerk notes that it will be recorded over in 48 hours! She contacts Heather who says a missing person report will take a week. Heather directs her to contact FBI agent Elijah Park (Daniel Henney) from the U.S. Embassy. Henney plays Lan Mandragoran in the fantasy series, The Wheel of Time. He will investigate, but is unable to send anyone to the hotel for the security footage.
June uses GoNinja to hire Javier (Joaquim de Almeida) in Colombia to check on the security footage. De Almeida plays Cardinal Duretti in the action series based on a comic book in Warrior Nun. June with Veena’s help is able to find Kevin’s passwords from his Facebook information. She checks his blocked emails to find a single’s site that he used. Kevin used various names to contact different women, one of them is a woman who uses the name “bunnicakes” (Lauren B. Mosley), and has taken money from them.
Still, Agent Park says that Kevin was a con man released from jail last year. Javier has found the footage is gone, but talked to a cleaning lady who said that they left on Friday all dressed up. June looks up bunnicakes’ job and finds out that she hasn’t been seen in two weeks! Each clue found through June’s website investigation uncovers the mystery of the people involved with her missing mother. The tension just builds, I crossed no one off my suspect list, until we get some hidden past with Grace! A great performance by Storm Reid of a daughter thrown into a situation that tests her cleverness and who she can trust. Missing is a mystery that draws audiences into June’s story with tension that keeps building until we find the truth.
Five TaskRabbits out of Five!
#Missing, #NickJohnson, #WillMerrick, #StormReid, #NiaLong, #KenLeung, #TimGriffin, #JoaquimDeAlmeia, #MeganSuri, #AmyLandecker, #DanielHenney
No comments:
Post a Comment