It’s no secret that our society is obsessed with true crime. The stranger and more gruesome the case, the more we’re willing to tune in. Everything from serial killers to mysterious disappearances captures our imagination, and for some of us, we even believe we’re smart enough to solve even the most complex mysteries. Hundreds of podcasts devoted to just that are easily accessible online every day, and while some of them have actually helped solve long-forgotten cases, our fascination with the macabre calls into question the morality of getting famous off of other people’s suffering.
Director Sophie Kargman sets out to explore the ethics of this very phenomenon in her latest film, Susie Searches. Susie Wallace (Kiersey Clemons) is a spirited college student with a deep love for solving mysteries. She splits her time between caring for her ailing mother and producing her own true crime podcast, and while she is seemingly an eternal optimist, the weight of her responsibilities coupled with her podcast’s lack of success quietly weighs on her. When a fellow student (played by the always-delightful Alex Wolff) who also happens to be a successful internet influencer goes missing, Susie sees it as an opportunity to put her amateur sleuthing skills to the test while also giving her failing podcast a much-needed boost. But as she navigates the complex world of real-life crime, she soon realizes she’s in over her head. After a series of missteps, Susie must ask herself whether fame is more important than living an ethical life.
In theory, Susie Searches should be a fun time. It’s got all the makings of a clever whodunit — an enthusiastic main character and an interesting mystery with the potential to say something big about society’s values — but unfortunately, the movie never really hits its stride. There is a quirkiness to the film that’s reminiscent of similar (and better) shows like Hulu’s hit Only Murders in the Building, but unfortunately Susie lacks the same sort of fragile likeability that Selena Gomez’s Mabel expertly conveys. Instead, Susie just feels like a naive college student with questionable morals who may, given enough time, end up in jail for her own psychopathic tendencies. She’s not even likeable in her unlikability, and that’s a problem considering viewers have to spend almost two hours watching her make mistake after mistake on screen. If it wasn’t for Alex Wolff’s spot-on portrayal of college influencer Jesse, the movie would flounder even more than it already does.
There are a lot of interesting threads to Kargman’s film. It’s clear she set out to try to make a statement about the ethics of internet fame in the 21st century. But instead of leaning in to that idea, Susie Searches gets bogged down in its twists and turns until it eventually loses sight of its message almost entirely. The film’s major curveball happens too early on to really make much of a mark so that everything that comes after just feels like a frantic attempt to make up for playing its best hand too early. In fact, there is a certain amateurishness to the film that starts to feel more like Susie Searches would be better suited to run as a Disney Channel Original Movie circa 2002. Ultimately though, Susie Searches is a mystery that never really finds its own motive, condemning it to a messy execution that will make even the most casual mystery lovers wonder about just what it’s trying to say.
Photo courtesy of Vertical
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