Our chronic dependence on electronic devices and their ubiquitous availability have fully seeped into contemporary narrative: Since the audience navigates their daily conundrums and mundane tasks aided by screens, so do many characters in television and film. Today it’s not rare to see a text bubble pop up in a movie to let us in on a conversation happening via instant messages or for a Skype call to be a relevant plot point.
In first-time director Aneesh Chaganty’s groundbreaking digital mystery “Searching,” however, this practice is maximized to previously untapped extremes. Computer interfaces stop being a storytelling accessory; instead, they offer the entire field of vision.