“Searching” The Movie: Our Tech Knowledge
The other week I had the pleasure of going to the movies for the first time in a few months. Typically, I scroll through Netflix or other streaming sites when I want to watch a film and pick the most appealing one that I find. Then I sit there on my 13-inch screen and watch. Its ironic to me watching critically acclaimed movies in such a shabby way, but I seem to enjoy the convenience more than the quality.
I think having movies sat such access is great because you can watch a lot of movies, often ones you wouldn’t go watch in theatres. Also, spending $17 to watch a movie seems absurd to me so the $9.99 a month source seems more promising.
Anyway, I went to the theaters the other week. $8 Tuesdays got me ready to go back to the theaters. I am not going to lie, I really missed the experience of actually “going to see a movie” and I was pleasantly surprised by it.
The movie I went to see is called “Searching.” It was directed by one of my friend’s coworkers and was highly recommended. I always take my friend’s advice with movies so I was excited to see what this had in store.
“Searching” was filmed like no movie I have ever seen. The entire movie was shot on a COMPUTER SCREEN! Think of the he irony. I left the Netflix computer screen to come watch a movie that in essence was a computer screen. I was so confused when the movie started and had no idea how it was going to be executed. When I say “computer screen,” I literally mean on a computer. It focused on a man and his daughter but involved other characters as well. Conversations between characters were shown through the use of Facetime, phone calls, text messages, social media platforms, and email. Anything done over a computer screen was used to create an incredible plot line that was constantly captivating and interesting. My curiosity was on the screen the whole time.
The plot of the movie is about a father and his daughter who recently lost their wife and mother to cancer. The daughter goes missing and the father goes through her computer. He learns about her life through pictures and conversations online and tries to help solve the mystery of her disappearance with the help of an investigator.
Having the whole movie shot in the context of computer activity really made me think about how technologically developed we are. We have so much knowledge about technology and our ways of communication are extremely complex. The use of cell phones, text messages, and social media make communication between people much more complex. Complex enough to create a whole film off of it. “Searching” really showed how much can be seen on a screen and how impactful our media lives are. It also alluded to how strong our lack of privacy truly is.
