Catfish

Before I start it should be said that this film is better the less you know about it. As soon as you do any research it gives the whole game away; even the title spoils the twist. For this reason this article will be deliberately short and vague so that not too much is revealed. You will just have to trust me.   And when I say spoiler alert, stop reading if you must!

The film is a documentary that follows Nev Shulman as he creates a relationship with a family he meets on the Internet. His friend Henry Joost and his brother Ariel Schulman film the entire thing; Nev develops an email correspondence with an 8 year-old artist called Abby after she paints one of this published photographs. Through emails, phone calls and Facebook Nev soon gets to know the rest of Abby’s family who he jokingly dubs ‘The Facebook Family’. Nev even begins to have some sort of romantic relationship with Abby’s teenage sister Megan. Since this all happens online and over the phone, the whole audience can tell it won’t end well no matter how sweet the veneer. In fact the ending, (spoiler alert)

attempts to turn the film into a thriller that shows the darker side of the Internet and social networking; possibly this film should be shown to children in their personal development classes. That is if the film is an authentic documentary (spoiler over).

There has been a lot of debate about whether this film is a real documentary or just a marketing ploy. At one end of the spectrum the stars claim it is all real while critics claim it is simply a fake, or possibly somewhere in the middle with parts of it being authentic footage while the rest is a dramatisation of real events. I have my own theories, but will keep them to myself since how much you believe in the authenticity of the footage will effect how ‘mind-blowing’ the ending is.The film is well put together and uses a lot of computer imagery and cinematography (Google Maps, Facebook and SatNav) to bind the scenes together, which gives everything a more interactive feel. As well as that the characters Nev, Areil and Henry, are nice enough. They all seem like ordinary guys that don’t mean any harm. What brings the film down for me, however, is the ‘mind-blowing’ ending which severely lacks a ‘boom’. I was waiting for my mind to explode throughout the entire 87 minutes and then upon realising the big climax happened earlier felt a bit put out. It might be that this is a genuine documentary so that the ending does reflect real life and not an adrenaline fueled version of it, but it was still not as shocking as I expected. Giving the filmmakers their due they carefully handled an ending that could have been made into something more shocking and less heartfelt. However, I still wanted my mind blown as I was promised and am disappointed it did not happen.

‘Catfish’ is an interesting documentary, how authentic it might be is questionable, but that is also not that important. However, the ending was not nearly as personally shocking as expected and this disappointment reduces my opinion of the film. My advice, go in blind.

Degree- 2:2

Having been brought up with all the internet horror stories

the end delivered the bare minimum that I expected.

To real enjoy the film avoid all spoilers

(If you are confused about the rating system please click on the ‘About This Blog Page’ which will explain it all)

You Have 2 New Friend Requests

Social networking has revolutionized the way we live and altered communication, advertising and most recently the law. So it comes as not surprise that the experience and dangers of social cyberspace have been made into a film; 2 in fact. There is ‘The Social Network’ which I have already mentioned and there is also ‘Catfish’, which looks at the darker side of it all.

Catfish is a fly on the wall documentary about  New York photographer Nev Schulman who pursues an online relationship with Megan Pierce who he meets after her half sister Abbey sends him a picture of one of his photos. We are shown, through the perspective of Nev’s friends, how the relationship grows as they start to text, call and email each other constantly. But with a the title of the film meaning ‘ a person who pretends to be someone they are not using online social networks’ we know it won’t be ending well. In fact the ending has been described by ‘JoBlo.com’ as ‘an emotional roller-coaster ride that you won’t be able to shake for days’, while the Financial Times said the film was ‘ the best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock never directed’. With such great recommendations it is a shame that UK viewers will likely never get to watch it, but I would love to hear from an American readers what the film is like. It will be released state side on 17th September 2010.

Luckily for UK audiences we will get to watch ‘The Social Network’ which will be out in the UK 15th October 2010. However, until then here is a sneak preview of some of the film’s scenes.