Review by ma-cortes

From the minds behind ¨Searching¨ comes ¨Missing¨, a thrilling roller-coaster mystery that makes you wonder how well you know those closest to you. A simple plot mostly set at a room: after his teenage mother goes missing, a desperate teen tries to find clues on her laptop. This dizzying and electrifying thriller, premiered at the 2023 Sundance Festival, focuses on the desperate search carried out by young June (Storm Reid) to find her missing mother (Nia Long) in Colombia during the holidays with her new boyfriend (Ken Leung). June's (Storm Reid) search for answers is hindered by international red tape. Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips to try to find her before it's too late. But, as she digs deeper, her digital sleuthing raises more questions than answers,... and, when June unravels secrets about her mom, she discovers that she never really knew her at all. How much do we know our closest people?. No one disappears without a trace!. He just missed his daughter's final call. June's daughter is missing. She can't find out where she is until he finds out who she is. No-one is lost without a trace. We are what we hide.

Will Merrick and Nicholas D. Johnson direct this sequel to his debut film as cameramen in "Searching", once again using the computer screen as a narrative resource to tell the story. An intricate story in which nothing and no one is what they seem, in which the deeper the investigation, the more secrets come to light and in which unanswered questions become the only thread that can be pulled. The film took jusa few months to shoot. However, it took long time to make due to the prep, editing and animating. Missing(2023) succeeds because of the thriller , tension , Kafkaesque suspense , as well as an interestingly written script concerning a complex intrigue in which our starring are in such extreme situation and their subsequent instinctive urges for survival . This laptop-set thriller deals with a deadly game of cat-and-mouse in which video cameras capture everything, and the internet has turned into a cesspool of surveillance that's hundred times more horrifying than Leatherface's dugout. While the film features computer operating systems, programs and (mostly) websites, they were re-created from scratch and animated on computers. We immediately see that the story is going to be told from some unorthodox perspectives as each scene is broadcast through a window on a computer monitor. The filmmakers ensured that each operating system, website, program, and app shown is visually accurate for the time/year in which the scene takes place. Despite its average budget the picture manages to be intelligent , intriguing and thrilling but also a little bit boring and hard to follow . The good thing about this film is that the director made it on a limited budget only having to do a few sets , yet the movie works on many levels but is constantly reconfigured. There is here in separate windows featuring a Webcam feed , even the action sequences are showcased in this format . In spite of being technically a "Techno thriller", the film nods at everything from a technological world to Hitchcock to mystery movie . The final result is an offbeat thriller that's captivating , in spite of not being all that fun or especially thoughtful , neither thought-provoking .

The motion picture was original and innovately directed by Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick . These filmmakers adapt to the times and find thriller/action/mystery in the ways people are living today. Directors manage to not seem completely daft and they're attacking our vulnerability online by setting his Techno film entirely unsettling. This picture relatively cheap was tautly written and directed, that's why it has a rating: 6.5/10. Better than average.