The best mystery movie of the year is now on Netflix

It’s rare that a mystery movie feels new. From the world’s greatest detectives to beach-based thrillers, movies have won the mystery genre over almost everything over the years. That’s why it’s such a fun thing to do Missing comes along and shakes up the formula a bit.

Missing is the successor of 2023 to that of 2018 To search and follows June Allen (Storm Reid), a teenager who never really knew her father and who loves (but doesn’t always get along with) her doing-her-best single mother – and gets even worse with her mother’s newest boyfriend . Despite that difficulty, when her mother mysteriously disappears during a trip to Mexico, June springs into action, using everything at her disposal as an amateur online detective to find her.

This premise may sound simple, but it’s designed that way. Missing‘s real hook is that it’s told entirely through the screen displays of the devices we have in front of us every day. Scenes play out in Photo Booth windows, FaceTime calls, security footage played on a computer screen, video chats, or Internet browsers. Everything in it Missing comes straight from the screen, including all the sleuthing June does. This isn’t the first movie to present its plot almost entirely through a screen, but it takes a more varied approach and changes locations more often than movies like Unfriendly or the superior sequel, Unfriendly: Dark Web.

This is where the cleverness of the film really shines through. Missing is a film that is confident on the Internet. It understands that there are live streams from most crowded public places at any given time, or that a Tasker or any other gig app employee is a good way to get somewhere without having to physically go there. We even get clever phishing scams designed to trap boomers, and clever account manipulation that feels grounded enough to work. It’s a refreshing change from the Internet’s versions of other thrillers, never falling prey to their comedic depictions of “hacking” or pretending their characters are tech geniuses.

The framing of shots played over webcam or video feed is creative and organic, giving the film a real tension that makes us feel as helpless as June does with her remote investigation. It’s an impressive feat to ensure that all this camera work never gets tedious and doesn’t draw attention to itself, but debut directors Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick succeed in increasingly surprising ways Missingthe very last moments. They find dozens of ways to show the action without repeating anything too often, turning the limitations of webcam or iPhone viewing angles into opportunities for thrills.

But Missing is more than just the sum of its gimmicks. It’s just an extremely entertaining movie, first and foremost. It gives viewers plenty of clues to solve the mystery on their own, but plays things out just as entertainingly if you’re an amateur Hercule Poirot or just content to sit on the sidelines and let the characters do the solving. Even beyond its very mystery, Missing is a rare super-smart thriller that never lets the stakes get out of hand and keeps things fun even when the on-screen situations are the worst.

Missing streams on Netflix