“Missing” (2023) is the standalone sequel to “Searching” (2018) in an anthology screenlife movie series. Screenlife is an offshoot of found footage movies in which every scene is shown on a computer or smart device. Eighteen-year-old June (Storm Reid) drowns her sorrows in beer-fueled ragers while her mom, Grace Allen (Nia Long), is vacation for a week in Columbia with her boyfriend, Kevin Lin (Ken Leung). When her mom never arrives at LAX as planned, June goes on a frantic investigation from the comfort of her own home to find her mother. 

I am a completist and adore found footage films so even though I missed the screener for “Missing,” I was more than happy to pay to see it in theaters. I also like Reid’s work so I was surprised that I did not like this installment as much as “Searching.” With a run time of almost two hours, it felt too long, and the screenlife genre felt more like a gimmick to speed up a mystery movie than to create character development. It felt tedious, but if you love mysteries with lots of twists and turns then you may prefer it to its predecessor. The most useful question that you can ask yourself is who is using the keyboard for this computer screen? It is the key to keeping track of all of the plot points.

“Missing” does try by giving June a similar backstory to the protagonist in “Searching”: June does not have a lot of family so she is more invested in finding her mother than an average person would. While she is sympathetic, I never related to June as a person because I had no sense of who she is on a normal day. She just seemed like the standard issue sullen teen. 

For instance, women have intense friendships, and while her best friend Veena, (Megan Suri), is always present during the early parts of “Missing,” anyone could have taken her place. June had more of a connection to Javi (Joaquim de Almeida), the man whom she hires to take over the investigation in Columbia, but when he gets discarded, and we are just watching June, the film loses its human element. The filmmakers seemed to be more into Javi than any of its other characters, but considering the denouement, it felt like a weird choice how hard the film went for Javi who is estranged from his son. The film takes a hard line on his side and refuses to even entertain the possibility that he contributed to his son going no contact. Either deAlmeida won them over, or the filmmakers had a solid story for Javi that they were very invested in, but never revealed. 

“Missing” would have been a better film if Grace was the protagonist. I pegged her as vague and evasive in all her interactions, so she was the most interesting person on screen, and I correctly predicted the twist in her story though the film succeeded at misleading me for awhile. When June found it easier to hack Ken’s email than her mother, it was a red flag, and I would have preferred if Grace’s story took another turn. I was surprised with all the press scrutiny, more information about Grace would not have popped up in the tabloids from people who knew her. Also while I have enjoyed Long’s work, I would not call myself a fan and would be hard pressed to list her movies without the aid of IMDb. Long does not have a lot of screen time, but she made the most of every moment and stole the movie by showing that June is her mama’s daughter and can still stand to learn a few things.

I am not into romantic storylines, but as June follows clues and uncovers how her mother met Kevin, that love story hooked me. It is the most powerful emotional moment in “Missing.” I associate Leung with “Lost,” and the film leverages his walking red flag casting history to amplify the audience’s suspicion of Kevin. Then the film turns on a dime and creates a moving sequence in which Grace and Kevin exchange video messages and fall in love online as they unload their baggage and become vulnerable with each other. It is a convincing, mature love story, and it was just as easy to chuck the suspicions and root for them. Leung and Long have great chemistry.

“Missing” touches on themes of tragedy and consumption through true crime’s popularity. June and Veena enjoy watching a fictional series featured in the movie called “Unfiction,” but when June comes under press scrutiny, she gets disgusted at how it makes people insensitive and reduces her life to a series of tropes. The critical theme is fair, but just did not resonate with me, and by the end of the movie, June has resumed watching her favorite show so is the film just going through the motions of reprimanding the culture or just ticking off boxes?

I really enjoyed that “Missing” was initially cognizant of June’s lack of resources: money, time, people who love her unconditionally, but then abandons those practical concerns. This lack created an organic ticking time clock and ratcheted up the tension, but once the film stopped focusing on those elements, the sense of urgency begins to lag.

Multicultural casting of “Missing” feels seamless and effortless. It only strains credulity because would there be international focus on a missing American black woman? Brittney Griner’s story provides a point of comparison though she was not missing. The press’ attention turned political and polarized as if there was a finite amount of help that could be provided, and her rescue took away from other more deserving people as if Griner was responsible for their situation. It was particularly interesting because most of the press has usually centered missing ordinary white girls and women, but to be black and get coverage, Griner, an Olympian and literal giant, had to stand out. Detractors highlighted her masculinity as a way to diminish concern for Griner’s safety, ignoring the fact that Russia is a bad place to be queer, black, not gender normative and American so she could be in more danger than the average Russian imprisoned American.

I wonder how Columbians feel about “Missing?” Columbia has an image in the US as a place where kidnappings occur, but was that ever true, and is that fair considering America’s level of crime?

More importantly, does Angel ever get his watch?!?

Side note: IMDb says that there is an alien invasion storyline in the background of both movies. Um, I never noticed and would like to know more please. Are we going to get some Cloverfield action in the foreground? Apparently it ties in with a superhero called the Green Angel. It almost makes me want to rewatch both movies, but I am too old for this deep dive. Would some kind person on the internet do the work for the rest of us?

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I did not appreciate the cat slander in “Missing.” The cat, Caesar, hated everyone except one character, and he is the bad guy. Cats are great judges of character, and I did not appreciate this mischaracterization.