Missing: A nifty tech thriller that raises the bar

At the height of the pandemic, it felt like screens were the only way to reach out beyond our bubbles. Hunched over a glowing tablet or phone was where many of us worked, shopped and tried – with varying degrees of success – to distract ourselves. For all the benefits, it was easy to feel unsettled and even resentful. Surely not every aspect of the human experience can be digitised and beamed over wifi?  

That friction between the supposed convenience and sometimes frustration of doing everything online is the engine that powers Missing, a nifty new thriller that unfolds entirely via the main character’s laptop screen. That might sound like an unnecessary straitjacket if you are trying to tell an engaging cinematic story. But stop to consider the bedlam of the average teenager’s digital life: a constantly pinging concerto of iMessage notifications, incoming video calls, looping TikToks, cheesy selfies, hastily typed reminder notes and questionable search queries.  

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Witnessing how she messes about online turns out to be an extremely efficient way to get to know 18-year-old June (played by Storm Reid, already a TV veteran from supporting roles in Euphoria and The Last of Us). In short order, we learn her dad died when she was much younger and that her mum Grace (Nia Long) relocated the family to LA. While June is upset that Grace is going on a romantic break to Colombia, she is also excited to be home alone and finally able to host a house party (one of her early searches is “how to throw a rager on a budget”). 

So far, so raucous teen comedy. But when Grace and her new beau Kevin (Ken Leung from Industry and Lost) fail to return from their trip to Cartagena, June goes from being annoyed, to concerned, to frantic. Why are they not answering their phones or responding to messages? Why have they switched off location data? How well does her mum really know Kevin? 

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While the authorities blithely ask her to fill out some forms, June embarks on her own investigation, putting together a timeline of the couple’s last known movements and attempting some amateur hacking to access their personal accounts. It is all the more impressive considering she begins this task with a massive hangover. 

Using techniques gleaned from watching true crime series, June soon harvests a bulging case file of clues and leads, all collated in ad hoc notes on her desktop screen. She even recruits some on-the-ground help in Cartagena in the form of casual gig worker Javi (Joaquim de Almeida), who responds to her eccentric requests with a mixture of good cheer and avuncular concern.  

June’s impassioned FaceTime calls with Javi – plus her in-person interactions with hard-partying pal Veena and stressed adult chaperone Heather, glimpsed via her laptop camera – give Missing a valuable thread of humanity amid the flurry of clicking and typing. Just before the self-imposed structural limits of the film begin to chafe, the plotting really kicks into high gear. Suddenly the whole world is talking about Grace’s disappearance, although the rolling news reports and clickbait-y online speculations are all still funnelled through June’s screen. Even the most jaded predictor of movie twists will likely find themselves unmoored in the film’s baroque digital maze and, while the laptop conceit is stretched to breaking point to stage an action-packed climax, by that point you are so heavily invested in the fates of June and Grace that sheer momentum carries everything through. 

Missing comes from the same creative talent behind 2018’s Searching, a similarly screen-restricted thriller where agitated dad John Cho investigated his daughter’s disappearance by digging into her online interactions. Missing expands everything that worked in its predecessor, adds several clever new visual techniques and polishes everything up to a shine. Whether this tech-heavy spin on found-footage films contains enough dramatic depth to become its own standalone genre remains to be seen, especially as tech that is cutting edge in 2023 could feel quaint in just a few years. But with its effective combination of appealing performances and expertly engineered screen craft, Missing is the new high watermark and convincing proof that constraints can inspire creativity. 

Missing is in cinemas from April 21

Evil Dead Rise

Over the course of three increasingly groovy instalments, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series evolved from cabin-in-the-woods gorefest to time-travelling splatter comedy. If the 2013 reboot was a return to its horror roots, the imminent sequel Evil Dead Rise is even more intense, as a possessed mum targets her panicked offspring in a decrepit LA apartment block. 

Evil Dead Rise is in cinemas from April 21 

Graeme Virtue is a film and TV critic

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income.

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