Review of Catfish (2010) by Brian S — 07 Nov 2011

Interesting, a bit disturbing, and certainly relevant. Still, as a long-time (20 years now) net denizen, I couldn't help but think of this as a very old theme in internet history. How many masters of occult power did I meet who turned out to live in mom's basement? How many manipulative sock-puppets lurked in Usenet and IRC, only to be found out in much the same way as the central character in this documentary? The anonymity of the net has always created havens for kooks, so while it's perversely gratifying to see one who lives on Facebook unmasked and her sad pathology exposed, it isn't particularly clever or surprising.

Not a bad documentary, but hardly a shocking new lesson to anyone whose spent any length of time around the net.