The rapid rate of technological advances in today’s day and age poses innumerable questions of security and surveillance.  In an era where information is accessible with the press of a button, there is an uneasiness about just how much can be found on the internet.

That is the premise for the 2023 film Missing, a standalone sequel to the film Searching, released in 2018.  Eighteen-year-old June Allen (Storm Reid) is left home alone while her mother, Grace (Nia Long), and Grace’s boyfriend, Kevin (Ken Leung), go on a vacation to Colombia.  However, when June goes to the airport to pick them up at the end of the trip, neither of them gets off the plane.  Desperate for answers as to where her mother could have gone, June turns to technology to track them both down, with the assistance of Javi (Joaquim de Almeida), a freelance errand man in Colombia.  

Cinematography

The entire film is shot through screens, whether it’s FaceTime footage, security cameras, or social media videos.  The search for information takes place entirely over the internet as well, traversing Gmail accounts, bank accounts, and even Google Translate.  It’s a multimedia sort of approach to filmmaking, with many segments of the film silent, relying on visuals to tell a story more than dialogue.  Though it may seem like a recipe for flat characters or stilted relationships among them, it was quite surprising how much background information and interaction was created through these various mediums of storytelling.  June is a dynamic, intelligent protagonist whose family is set up eloquently from the start.  Old home videos provide an overview of the family and the disruption within it that sets up the rest of the film while cleverly hiding some details from the viewers until the very end.

The Plot

The fractured relationship between June and her mother is one of the key points of the film, which fills a sort of tired stereotype that is present in many narratives.  While it didn’t necessarily improve the quality of the film, it didn’t detract from it, either – it felt like a realistic portrayal of a familial relationship, no matter the commonality of such a story.  The twists and turns of the film (while occasionally fantastical and demanding a stretch of the imagination) are enough to compensate, keeping viewers engaged with the story and curious about how it is all going to resolve.  Little clues hint at some of these twists before they occur, though some are so subtle that they may not be remembered until June figures them out.  Much like Knives Out, most of the pieces are in place for viewers to put together if they can push past the narrative and focus on the facts that June gathers.  Some of the answers are out there from the beginning – the trick is remembering them.