SEARCHING, TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE, and SUPPORT THE GIRLS musings
SEARCHING
It’s crazy to think that a movie taking place fully on a computer screen could be so engaging and actually interesting for its runtime. From the opening shot of Windows XP starting up, I was pulled back into a nostalgic feeling, and for the next five or so minutes, I was hooked. The sequence is one of the most wonderful (almost Pixar-like) experiences I’ve seen this year, and it fully got me invested in the characters, David, Pam and Margot Kim and their relationships with each other.
Once that sequence ends, we get to the main meat of the story. Margot goes missing, and David uses the technology available to find his daughter, with the aid of Detective Rosemary Vick, played by Debra Messing. Through the eyes of computer screens, we see their investigation into Margot’s disappearance grow stranger and stranger. It’s a testament to Cho’s acting skill that all of this works in spades. There’s also inherent tension in typing, which director Aneesh Chaganty uses to great effect.
Seeing what David Kim types out and deletes tells us a lot about his character, and about us as internet users. How does what we say to loved ones or people we barely know on the internet reflect our personalities and how we are perceived? What does what we do on the internet say about our true individual humanity? There’s another sequence in the movie that shows how hurtful and misguided internet comments can be; friends of mine have dealt with abuse on Twitter and Facebook and it’s eerie to see it reflected here. SEARCHING ultimately works because we care about David, and we can identify with how fallible he is. Our computer screens can tell us a lot about who we are, and the movie forces us to ask these questions, while also giving us a damn good mystery that continuously kept me guessing and stressed out (in a good way, of course), even on a second viewing.
RATING: BEST OF THE BEST
(Refer to my ratings system HERE!)
TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE
I usually review exclusively movies I watch in theaters, but this one impressed me so much. TO ALL THE BOYS is relatively conventional in its rom-com tropes, but it has an endless amount of charm and joy usually absent in most romantic comedies of late. On top of that, it’s actually really well made, with great cinematography and a strong script bolstered by electric performances all around. Lana Condor has excellent comedic timing as Lara Jean, Noah Centineo (Peter Kavinsky) proves to be one of the most charismatic up and coming actors, and John Corbett delivers a loving performance as Lara Jean’s father. The story lulls sometimes and gets a bit too melodramatic, but its effortlessly charming cast pulls it out of the valleys. This movie strives to be a new touchstone for teens just like John Hughes’ films did, and it goes so far as to reference many of Hughes’ movies.
RATING: BEST OF THE BEST
(Refer to my ratings system HERE!)
SUPPORT THE GIRLS
Regina Hall gives an excellent, subdued performance as Lisa, a general manager at a Hooters-like sports bar and restaurant. Taking place over a day, her life crumbles and crescendoes, as she has strange and enlightening encounters with customers, employees, bosses and family. Lisa tries to be as positive as she can, and Hall pulls off the struggle dealing with that kind of stress. The rest of the ensemble is serviceable, with only Haley Lu Richardson getting a chance to really stand out from the rest of the cast.
SUPPORT THE GIRLS cruises on a solid script that focuses on life in the current midwest America. It’s a charming, optimistic film that really shows how much (as the character Maci points out) a workplace can be so much more fun if your bosses love and care about you and the customers as much as Lisa does. It doesn’t try to do much more than shed a light on this particular kind of society within America, but it’s a great and heartwarming time.
RATING: DIDN’T WASTE MY TIME
(Refer to my ratings system HERE!)
