Review of Catfish (2010) by Anthony M — 15 Jan 2012

Fakebook.

Facebook is bigger than anyone, there have been films about it, on it and how people meet via it, but Catfish is a documentary about 2 people who meet online. One a 24 year old photographer "Nev" and the other his adoring fan Abbey, aged 8 who paints anything Nev photographs and sends her, so the real question is, is Catfish a different set of Jaws or just another kipper?

It's annoying to me that the only thing anyone really cares about in documentaries is there validity, like anyone even remotely cares about that in any other film? No one watched Harry Potter and criticized it for it's unreal partiality of the British boarding school ethics. People need to wake up and realize, no film is completely real, it has to be edited (even Andy Warhol's "Sleep" isn't real), so I suppose the question you want to ask now is, is Catfish real?

The answer in my opinion is irrelevant, because when I first finished watching the film it had a deep impact on me, and at that point I didn't care, however after considering it properly and reviewing the footage I am forced to conclude that my answer is "No" I don't think Catfish is real, I believe it was real to a point and a degree, and it's doubtless to say that some of the interviews (especially the later ones) couldn't have been faked, but at points and some of the more obvious parts must have been faked and contrived so it could look like it was "randomly" caught on camera, but even Nanook Of The North did that.

The subject of the film is a controversial one, and it was probably mapped out that way,.

A subject that was first really brought to our attentions in Hard Candy, the idea that people online might not be who they say they are, the idea of internet predators, and ironically in Catfish everyone involved could be doubted the "predator" of the piece. No one is really innocent in the film no matter how much Nev would try and produce himself to be a good person; he is in fact using Abbey and her talents as often as he can, and later he uses Megan as well. I would go into greater depth however I feel I'm nearing the edge of "Spoiler" territory.

Manipulation isn't the only theme in the film, to me the movie speaks about isolation and desperation in equal measure and how we all just want to be liked and loved, in my opinion at least. Truly I'm unsure how to explain Catfish apart form saying that it is... unique.

What's also unique about the film is all the little tiny tweaks on what we take for granted, the Universal logo a the beginning being one such example, the directors (or maybe they should be known as documenters) are Ariel Schulman (Nev's brother) and Henry Joost (family friend), are inventive. However, I get the strong feeling all the inventive and engaging parts of the film came from Joost and not Arial, I am only of this opinion because Joost is going to direct the next Paranormal Activity film, so it's more than likely he is the talent.

I think what really works in Catfish's favour is that it never feels boring, even after the "Big meet up" the film never loses momentum; it keeps its pacing consistent and editing crisp.

Catfish is a film unlike any other, and that's no bad thing. Catfish is a film more about who we want to be, than who we are. Just like the title implies, Catfish is one that keeps you on your toes.