"Searching"

 

John Cho is looking for his missing daughter and accosts a teenager played by Buck Reed in a theatre lobby in "Searching" (Sony Pictures, 2018). The film is set in the San Jose area and John had tracked him down at the "Oaktree Theatres." The location they used was the Regency Valley Plaza Theatres in North Hollywood. 

 

The kid posted an obnoxious remark saying the daughter was with him and he was her pimp. The film, directed by Aneesh Chaganty, also features Debra Messing, Michelle La and Sara Sohn. The cinematography was by Juan Sebastian Baron, Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick. Thanks to Cinema Treasures contributor Midnight Moon for noting the appearance of the theatre in the film. 

 

 

 The encounter ends up online. Here the guy in blue has also started filming it.

 

We watch with John as he later sees the footage online as "Crazy Dad Theater Attack."

 

 

Other customers flee as the encounter gets violent. The kid ends up in the hospital and the altercation doesn't lead John any closer to finding his daughter.  

For more about this six screen complex see the page about the Valley Plaza Theatres on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It opened in 1976 on Bellingham Ave. just south of Victory Blvd. The theatres closed for good in 2020.

On IMDb: "Searching"