Susie Searches

Susie is a bright and plucky, but terminally awkward college student, with a love of mysteries and a true-crime podcast that no one listens to, but all that changes when she solves the mysterious disappearance of the local campus heartthrob. With her star on the rise, events take a dark turn, and Susie soon finds herself in over her head.

Susie is first introduced to us in a montage that begins with her as a child, sitting beside her mother, who is reading her a detective novel, a classic whodunnit filled with strange clues and hidden motivations. The pair share their hobby over the years, and when her mother falls ill, Susie cares for her, continuing to read detective novels together. As a college student, Susie devotes her time between her studies, caring for her mother, her part-time job at a fast food/coffee shop, her other part-time job as a secretary/gopher at the Sheriff’s office, and her unpopular true crime podcast. There isn’t much time for friends or dating, mostly because Susie is a lonely and insular kid, complete with braces, nervous laughter, and downcast eyes. It’s a very effective way of showing us who Susie is, what she cares about, and why she does the things she does, for good and for ill.

And there is some ill…

Based on Director Sophie Kargman’s short film of the same name, Susie Searches is about the dangers of viral fame, when urge to be a voyeur becomes harmful, and the morbid draw of the true crime genre, but overall the story has neither the bite it needs to examine these topics, nor does it quite earn its ending, and the big tonal shift in the story, partway through movie, never quite drops fully into gear. Worst of all, the shock ending really only highlights what a better version of this film would’ve focused on for its climax instead.

It’s a near miss, really, but not half bad still.

Despite its narrative shortcomings, the film has a lot of charm. Kiersey Clemons is fantastic as Susie, she’s the whole movie, and I just want to take a moment to remind you all that if you haven’t seen the movie Sweetheart starring her, then you need to make that a priority, for while the film does have a terribly half-assed poster for some reason, its also got maybe the best done monster reveal I’ve ever seen.

Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

But I digress…

In the end, Susie Searches doesn’t quite come together, but it’s still fun and cute, and really, sometimes it’s nice to see the bad guy come out on top. Sometimes that’s the way it should be.