The Tameside Radio presenter and film fanatic gives his verdict on Missing - a thrilling roller-coaster mystery...
Do you remember a time before social media?
Growing up in the 1980s, I remember calling my friends and having to wait whilst their mum shouted up the stairs to get them to come to the phone.
Arranging to meet someone "under the M&S clock in town" (I grew up in York, and it was a popular meeting spot on Parliament Street), and you just turned up at that time. No WhatsApp group to sort out a Saturday night of drinks and fun. Things were a lot simpler back then. To block someone, you just left the receiver off the hook. Pass me a Werthers.
Anyway, Missing is a standalone sequel to 2018's Searching, in which we see Storm Reid's character June thowing a party as her mother goes to Columbia with her new fella, and leaves her home alone. She turns up at the airport to collect her mum with a "Welcome Home From Prison" placard, filming the comedy moment to be uploaded to social media...and her mum is nowhere to be seen.
Much like Searching, the majority of the film is played out on computer screens, as Grace's (Nia Long) Google account history is searched, instant messages constantly ping, and a desperate quest for answers is underway. At times, the plot is a little far-fetched, but the characters are good, and it kept my attention for its 110 minute running time. It has a few good edge-of-your-seat moments, and a satisfying conclusion.
As one review in an Australian publication The Age puts it: "If you were teaching a course on cyberstalking - or, to put it more neutrally, online detective work - you could do worse than show Missing in the first class". We all leave a digital footprint, and this film makes clever use of technology throughout. WIth a budget of about 7 million dollars and a US Box Office take of more than four times that figure, I can see a third "missing person on a laptop" film completing the trilogy in the next few years. I thoroughly enjoyed is twists and turns!
I just can't get excited about another Marvel film, and with permission, I'd like to moan for a moment about cinema times. It's a bit of a niche moan, but I'm guessing when the latest Marvel movie lands, there is a requirement for a certain number of daily screenings. This means promising movies like Big George Foreman and Renfield either get reduced to one showing a day, or edged out of the schedules completely after only a week or two. I find this frustrating. I think I've reached superhero saturation point.
In a one man on the radio protest, I won't be spending two and a half hours watching Guardians of the Galaxy III this week (but would welcome your thoughts if you've seen it). Instead, I'll have reviews in next week's column of the latest Jim Broadbent film, plus hopefully Renfield and The Pope's Exorcist (both still showing in Sheffield), and Dungeons and Dragons (still on at Leeds Cineworld).
Have a good week!
