SEARCHING (Malaysia, 20 Sep 2018)

Genre: Thriller

Running Length: 1:42

Cast: John Cho, Debra Messing, Michelle La, Joseph Lee, Sara Sohn
Director: Aneesh Chaganty

Screenplay: Aneesh Chaganty & Sev Ohanian

What's this movie about?

The narrative of SEARCHING is nothing new - a teenage daughter goes missing and her father David Kim (Cho) goes full frantic to search for her when the police investigation comes to a dead end. The more digging he does, the more questions he unearths.

But what's super engaging about this movie is the stylistic approach the filmmakers chose to unfold this riveting thriller. The entire movie is told from a first person + computer desktop + mobile screen perspective.   

Highlights
When I first saw the trailer, I thought such an approach was gimmicky. But nooo....it's BECAUSE of this method that got me glued to the whole 90+ mins of this film. It's one of those movies that you just can't sit back. Instead, you're forced to lean forward and "participate".

When the movie was over, I felt exhausted - but in a good kind. I just went, "Oh wow".

From a story perspective, it's an effective mystery-thriller with a powerful emotional component. Usually such whodunnit movies defy logic when the big reveal comes. But for Searching, I couldn't help but to feel for the characters. Because when I think about their actions, it was motivated by one thing - love. 

Everything about this movie feels absolutely real - the social media effect of getting more likes, how we judge people from their Instagram photos and their captions and the way the texting is written (and deleted).

In terms of the "set pieces", the attention to details are impeccable from the old Windows design to the iconic sounds of the software/programs/apps used in this film.

Lowlights
Eventhough I said the greatest asset of this movie is its stylistic approach but I felt the filmmakers were stretching it too thin towards the last 15 minutes when the proceedings demanded an expansion from the confines of a computer screen.

In summary

A standing ovation for feature film debut director Aneesh Chaganty for such an innovative way of telling a familiar story, thus making SEARCHING fresh but yet retaining all the red herring and suspense elements of a traditional mystery-thriller. 

RATING: 9/10

STAR TREK BEYOND (2016)

Genre: Science Fiction / Action
Running Length: 2.00
Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella
Director: Justin Lin
Screenplay: Simon Pegg & Doug Jung

I was neither a big fan of Star Trek nor Star Wars series. But I leaned towards the latter because light sabers are just too cool. Well let's put it this way, Star Wars is about a war and Star Trek is about trekking the galaxy for the purpose of exploration. And war stories are always grander in scope and the agenda is clear; good guys vs bad guys. Thus, the premise of showing the day-to-day life on the Enterprise and the crew contemplating whether to engage with foreign regimes or not seems boring...until now.

Well, the first act of STAR TREK BEYOND does just that by looking at the reality of the everyday life on the starship. Even Captain Kirk himself is questioning his purpose as the captain of the ship because, "Things are starting to feel a little...episodic, " he confesses.

But when the second act kicks in, it goes up a notch. The Captain and his crew are attacked by Krall (Alba), a vicious enemy. As a result, the USS Enterprise crashes (yet again) into our deadly enemy's territory and the main crew are separated. It is in this process of finding each other and rescuing the rest of the crew, the audience is treated to some nice character development. The highlight to me is the amazing chemistry between Urban and Quinto's character as they had to lean-on each other to survive. A shout out to Urban who usually plays tough action hero characters because in this installment, his Bones character is fully fleshed out and his against type casting as a "doctor and not a fighter" is just perfect.

Speaking of casting, many critics have argued that Idris Alba is wasted as the main villain because he is buried under all the prosthetic. But when his character's motivation is revealed, I personally felt his casting was worthwhile.    

And when the movie finally kicks into warp drive in its third act, it goes into full on explosive Justin Lin's Fast & Furious mode. In fact, now I can fully appreciate how clever it is for the marketing team to use "it" for its first trailer. Many may argue for its sheer ridiculousness but I love it!

All in all, Star Trek Beyond should appeal to the mainstream audience without alienating fans of the Star Trek series. Although it seems to draw more inspiration from Guardians of the Galaxy in terms of its treatment, I'm not complaining because this film is much more fun compared to its predecessors. And it has a good balance of piling up the action and focusing on the relationships within the crew. The humanity element which defines this series is respectfully kept in this sequel as it explores the vision of what society could become in the future if humanity learned from its past mistakes...or do not.

Rating: 8.5/10