Review of Catfish (2010) by Ingela A — 28 Feb 2012

Rating : ★★★★.

This film was great and touched on a personal level which I imagine it would do to many people. This documentary I have yet to work out whether it was real or not. With most documentary or cam films you are able to work out that they are fake e.g. Cannibal Holocaust, Paranormal Activity. But this film made it so believable I think that is what makes it brilliant.

This goes to make the film hard to review on a character basis because either the people involved are genuine or acted brilliantly.

The documentary chronicles New York photographer Nev Schulman's online friendship with Abby, an eight-year-old Michigan artist, her mother, and the burgeoning relationship with Abby's older half-sister, Megan. As the relationship between Nev and Megan becomes more serious and intimate, Nev (with his director brother Ariel Schulman and director friend Henry Joost) begins to have doubts. As the trio starts doing investigation (all involving YouTube, Google, GoogleMap searches on MacBooks and iPhones), questions arise around Megan's true identity.

The overall result is a terrific film that is touching, and at certain points extremely tense. It is sad and sympathetic but at the same time unnerving. The fact that it touches on real world matters and a social network that over 500 million people are involved in, it's very easy to come to the conclusion that stories similar to the one in this film are very common and for that matter I recommend this film to all as it is brilliant and am sure most will think highly and positive of it.