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Searching for Sonny

2011 film by Andrew Disney

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ12127352
Source-derived summary

Searching for Sonny is a 2011 independent film and the feature film debut of writer/director Andrew Disney. The film released on October 22, 2011 and stars Jason Dohring as one of several people involved in a murder mystery.

Plot

Elliott (Jason Dohring), Calvin (Nick Kocher), Gary (Brian McElhaney) and Eden (Minka Kelly), find themselves chief suspects in a murder mystery at their ten-year high school reunion. The events surrounding the disappearance of their friend Sonny (Masi Oka), is reminiscent of a high school play they once performed, coincidentally written by Sonny himself. Deception leads to scandal and the truth surfaces as the friends learn that shady businessmen and school officials are involved in a complex scheme of money and murder.

Cast

Jason Dohring as Elliot Knight

Minka Kelly as Eden Mercer

Masi Oka as Sonny Bosco

Michael Hogan as Principal Faden

Nick Kocher as Calvin Knight

Brian McElhaney as Gary Noble

Clarke Peters as The Narrator

Mackinlee Waddell as Maggie Phillips

Brandon Thornton as Zack Hayes

Kristin Sutton as Cynthia Schubert

Reception

Critical reception for Searching for Sonny has been mostly positive and The Hollywood Reporter summed the film up as "Quirky, comic film noir proves yet again that high school reunions never turn out well." Much of the film's praise centered around the film's acting and directing, and the Oklahoma Gazette commented that Disney's work helped to make the film look "like several million dollars were poured into the thing".

Editorial summary

“Searching for Sonny” enters the record as 2011 film by Andrew Disney. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Searching, Sonny and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2011-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Searching, Sonny and film.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Searching for Sonny” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Searching, Sonny and film provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12127352. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Searching for Sonny”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Searching for Sonny primary sources, Searching for Sonny archive and Searching research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Searching for Sonny”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Searching for Sonny” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.