Susie Searches review: searching for social media fame

Susie Searches is a fun suspense tale. It’s transparent and simplistic, but still enjoyable and highly entertaining. Susie (Kiersey Clemons as an adult) has a gift. From an young age, she could tell who the murderer was early in a mystery. She’s always right. Now in college, she wants to parlay that talent into a business by doing a podcast about her investigations into unsolved crimes.

In Susie Searches, Susie knows a successful podcaster right on her own campus. Jesse (Alex Wolff) has a huge following for his meditation podcast and his message to “Be kind.”

Susie starts her own podcast, called Susie Searches. She will investigate crimes in the series. She isn’t getting any followers. Everyone follows Jesse.

Susie works in a fast food place with a oddball boss, Edgar Cabot (Ken Marino), and an mean girl co-worker, Jillian (Rachel Sennott). Susie is also an intern in the sheriff’s department. Sheriff Loggins (Jim Gaffigan) is an out of shape birdwatcher. Deputy Graham (David Walton) drinks protein shakes in an effort to bulk up. She knows her way around the sheriff’s department and the evidence room.

Jesse disappears. He can’t be found anywhere. The sheriff has no clues. Susie builds a case showing he was kidnapped by his uncle. She locates Jesse in the basement of one of his uncle’s properties. Jesse’s blindfolded, bound, gagged and scared. Susie saves him and tells the story on her podcast.

Jesse being saved by the amateur detective Susie makes the news. Both their podcasts receive a lot of attention. They are interviewed by the press. The college President (Geoffrey Owens) uses them for PR for the college. Jesse credits Susie with saving his life.

One small fly in the ointment is Ray (Isaac Powell). He’s Jesse’s close friend and full of questions for Susie she doesn’t want to answer.

Things go wrong for Susie. Social media fame is a fickle bitch. You see much of the end coming because the plot is transparent in many ways. There are plenty of red herrings and clues, all dished out in fun ways. There are some surprises you don’t see coming, too. The surprises are what give this different story a clever ending.

The film was directed by Sophie Kargman, based on a story she wrote. It’s streaming on Hulu.