May 19, 2021

Yesterday was my last in Seattle. My friend and I microdosed and ate caviar and creme-freche, went and got food twice, had a cocktail, had a bottle of Proseco. Talked a lot because that's what we do. Took bets on which of the couples in the world was most likely to get a divorce. She gave me and my husband a 50/50 chance which was a little alarming. I guess it is the statistical average, the top of the bell curve. Whew, it's hard to feel secure in things. 

I'm back in LA now, and it's good to be home. I'll be excited for no travel for a bit (after my husband and I go to Austin for Memorial Day). Both trips have been great, but I'm ready to get back into my routine again. I miss feeling like a robot whiz who accomplishes all her goals and finishes her tasks. 

Mlog Time! 

**SPOILERS**

SEARCHING

2018

Directed by: Aneesh Chaganty

Written by: Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian

Watched: 5/18/21

David Kim has had a strained relationship with his daughter, Margot, ever since his wife (and Margot’s mother) died of cancer. It takes a day of unreturned texts and phone calls for David to file a missing persons report. Detective Rosemary Vick gets connected with the case, and together they start the search for Margot. David goes through Margot’s laptop, through her social media, through her contacts. He learns that Margot stopped piano lessons six months ago and has been depositing the money for the piano lessons during that time. He learns that Margot doesn’t really have any friends. She’s been sad and distant for a while. He has a heartfelt conversation with the detective, where she talks about a time a neighbor accused her son of stealing from her – something she had thought her son was incapable of doing. David discovers YouCast, a live streaming site like Twitch, where Margot talked a lot with a user called fish_and_chips. David figures out that Margot liked to go to a lake near where her car was last seen. He drives up there, discovers her key chain, and they find her car in the lake. A media frenzy ensues and a man makes a confession and then commits suicide. But David realizes that fish_and_chips’s profile picture is a stock photo and that she’s definitely not the waitress in Pittsburgh that Vick claimed to have called. He also finds out that Vick volunteered for the case, rather than being assigned to it like she claimed. It turns out “fish_and_chips” was her son who had a crush on Margot. Margot believed that fish and chips’ mom had cancer and not enough money for medical bills, so Margot venmo’ed her $2,500. The detective’s son was returning the cash but scared Margot who was hanging out in her car by the lake late at night. She fought him and ran. In the dark she couldn’t see the ravine and fell in. When Detective Vick got there, she presumed Margot to be dead and started covering for her son. But Margot wasn’t dead! And her father finds her and they reconcile. 

I did a long summary for this one. I should mention that this whole movie was made up of computer screens – Facetime, text, livestreams, youtube, finder, files, desktop. That and John Cho as David made it remarkable more than anything else. The plot had some holes, which I don’t usually mind, but I think because I’m used to the mystery/thriller genre, they stuck out to me more. For example, if the detective’s son didn’t want to be Venmo’ed the money, than how did Margot get his venmo user name (which was like User-77r or something)? The confession from the man said that her disposed of Margot’s body and her suitcases. We know that that guy was lying, but one of the first steps in the investigation would have really been to check if any suitcases were missing from the house. I also guessed really early on that it was the detective’s son. As soon as she gave the anecdote of her son stealing and her covering for him, and saying “but if you tell anyone, I’ll deny it,” I was pretty sure. Her son was in the storyline way more than he needed to be. It feels too coincidental that the detective on the case is related to the murderer and throwing the whole thing, even if they do clarify that she volunteered. There was also a bit with David’s brother that I could tell was going to be about weed not sex. I don’t know, I just felt ahead of the movie. 

Also, as a side note, I watched this movie on a plane and my monitor wasn’t really working properly. I knew ahead of time that I wanted to watch SEARCHING, but the scroll function in the movie menu wouldn’t work. So I was able to click on the spotlight for Asian and Pacific Islander heritage Collection (which scroll function was working) because I knew John Cho was in it. Success! 

Rating: ★★★