This February 24 arrives in theaters Missingthe new delivery of Sony Pictures, that follows in the wake of movies like Searchingo Unfriendednarrating the story from a computer screen. An aesthetic that is less innovative, which aims to bring a breath of fresh air to the more conventional narrative formula.
June is an 18-year-old girl who lives with her mother in a quiet residential neighborhood in Los Angeles. One day, her mother disappears along with her boyfriend while they were enjoying a vacation in Colombia. Distraught, June must use all the technology at her disposal to try to find her mother.
Starring Storm Reidin the role of June, who we could see briefly in Suicide Squad, Nia Long, Amy Landecker y ken leung. Directed by Will Merrick y Nicholas D. Johnson, editor of own Searching.
Let’s travel back in time for a moment, specifically to 2015, when it premiered Unfriended, with a budget of 1 million USD, and obtained a collection of 62.9 million. Now let’s travel a little further, to 2018, when it was released Searching with a budget of 880,000 USD, and obtained a whopping collection of 75.6 million. What do these two movies have in common? First, they were unabashedly profitable. And secondly, they put their grain of sand in the evolution of the narrative format, with an original and innovative proposal, which consists of telling the story from a computer screen. Quite a challenge for the script, and especially for editing.
Taking into account the commercial success of these precedents, it was a matter of time before another film came out in this format, and so we have Missing.
Style over substance?
He said Alan Horncreative director of Walt Disney Studios, in a program for the Hollywood Reporter, that if someone came up with an idea for a movie, they had to answer the following two questions: Why do I have to see it now? And why do I have to see it in theaters? If the answers were satisfactory, the project had the green light, otherwise, it was not financed.
In the case of Missing, it is not difficult to guess the answer to the first question. It is released now, because the bulk of the plot falls on June’s investigation from her home computer, which allows her to use any application or social network imaginable, see Google Shearch, Google Translator, Google Maps, Google Earth, Gmail, Youtube, Whatsapp, Facetime, Facebook, AppleWatch, TikTok, Siri, or Tasker Rabbit, to name a few. It could be interpreted as a photo of the current technological paradigm, or a great 2-hour announcement of all the technologies or social networks discussed and to be commented, that each viewer draws the conclusion that she deems appropriate.
The answer to the second is because its predecessors were ludicrously profitable, cost very little and gross a lot, and since movies released directly to VOD generate much less revenue for studios, Missing it was a logical bet to attract the public to the cinema, a task that seems utopian today.
Will it follow in the footsteps of its predecessors?
The interpretations are more than correct, especially June, and her mother. The direction is committed to the narrative style, and does not let go, except at very specific moments, which is not easy to do, nor is it common to see.
However, beyond the groundbreaking format, and the technological photo, Missing It doesn’t add much in terms of narrative quality. It has multiple twists, but each one is more predictable than the last. The characters evolve, they learn things that cause changes in their way of being, but they are very hackneyed character arcs in the cinema, not only in this subgenre. There are moments of suspense, but the plot seems determined to surprise, rather than to mature the intrigue well.
There may be those who consider that the monoplane from the computer screen is repetitive, and tiring after the first 20 minutes, or there may be those who consider it hectic. Teens may identify with the lead in “wow, I’d do the same” moments, or they may see it as a desperate attempt to bring young people to the movies.
Time will tell us if Missing will it be a commercial success like its predecessors, or if it will be a downward turning point for this narrative format. Will it be remembered as a big two-hour commercial that leaves The Lego Movie at the height of the bitumen? Or will it be remembered as a daring attempt to redefine a hackneyed formula? Who knows, what is certain is that the style vs. substance battle is served before the spectators.
Missing
Title: Missing
Synopsis: When her mother disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, June’s search for answers is hampered by international red tape. Stuck in Los Angeles, thousands of miles away, June uses all the technology at her disposal to try to find her before it’s too late. But the deeper he searches for her, the digital investigation of her raises more questions than it answers…and when June reveals secrets about her mother, she realizes she never really knew her. Sequel to ‘Searching’
Director(es/as) : Nicholas D. Johnson,
Will Merrick
Department : Storm Reid, Nia Long,
Amy Landecker,
Ken Leung,
Thomas Barbusca,
Lisa Yamada,
Joaquim de Almeida,
Tim Griffin,
Megan Suri,
Tracy Vilar,
Karina Noelle Castillo,
Rick Chambers,
Michael Segovia,
Jameel Shivji,
Daniel Henney,
Ava Zaria Lee,
Kimberly Cheng,
Sharar Ali-Speakes,
Lauren B. Mosley
Gender : Thriller | Drama
James Aguilar
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