Rating:  

Supermarche, Hit The Ground Running Films, Rogue, and Universal Pictures.

A film branded as THE breakout hit from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, “Catfish” is a documentary that will leave you talking and thinking about it in the days and weeks that follow your viewing. “Catfish” is engrossing, disquieting, with revelations and moments that are haunting and disconcerting. I can easily report that “Catfish” is an extraordinary movie. With that said, it is troublesome, frustrating, and uncomfortable. To write about or discuss a film like “Catfish” is a dicey predicament since this film comes packed with twists and turns which, in the framework of a low budget documentary, makes the final product a bit stunning and rather unbelievable. So, removed from the viewing of this much-talked about film, I am not sure where I stand. I am happy to have seen it and probably equally as unhappy as well. Let me tread rather lightly here. Oh, and I should mention that …

**Light Spoilers Follow**

“Catfish”, on its most basic level, is a film that deals with the ideas of trust, friendship, vulnerability, and acceptance. The film builds its infrastructure around the idea of documenting one man’s unexpected meeting of a young girl and the rest of her family through the social media outlet, Facebook. Within the last 5 years or so, Facebook has become a site that countless millions of people have made friends with, found friends on, and rediscovered lost friends through. In addition to that, one friend connection leads to another so easily, and so on and so on, that Facebook has had a major hand in creating altogether new friendships as well. The young girl is named Abby, age 8. The man contacted is Yaniv (Nev) Schulman, a successful dance and ballet photographer in New York City, whose recent picture in a national magazine has infiltrated Abby’s world. Abby is so taken by the photograph that she sends a Private Message to Nev’s Facebook profile, asking if she could repaint his picture. Nev, rather dumbfounded but excited, agrees and soon, Abby’s mother, Angela, has sent the painting to Nev. A conversation with Angela leads Nev to “meet” Abby (via Facebook), her older 19-year old half-sister Megan, and other members of Abby’s family. Nev’s partners in photography, older brother Ariel, and close friend Henry Joost, work in documenting dance and other artistic performances. Almost immediately, they begin to film Nev’s initial and increased correspondence with Abby’s family. As the contacts continue, Nev becomes rather close with Megan, and over time they talk, text, and exchange pictures on an almost daily basis. As their conversations and interactions intensify, Ariel and Henry continue to film and document the escalation of all of Nev’s relationships with the family members over the course of several months. When work calls the three partners to Colorado, Nev invites Abby’s family to join them in Colorado; or, they decide, when their work is done, they will travel up to Michigan and surprise Abby and her family and finally meet in person. As all of this is going on, Henry and Ariel keep filming and begin to uncover some interesting details about Nev’s new friends.

**Light Spoilers End**

Alright. Let me stop there. Don’t worry, I do not think I have revealed anything that will ruin the film for you. And therein lies much of the quandary when discussing “Catfish”; to wit, how much is too much? The trailer for the film features a quote which indicates, and I am paraphrasing, that the film will shake you to your core for its final 40 minutes. Hmmm. It also features a shot of Nev rushing up to a white garage in the middle of the night, peering through a window. What is he looking for? Does he find something? Does this foretell a scary and frightening development? Yeah it does, but far from ways you would ever expect.

Let’s just put it out there also that many, many people have questioned the legitimacy of this film and I have to say that since I have seen the film, I have placed one foot, and only one, on that side of the line. I simply do not know. What I do know is that the film bothers me on many different levels, not the least of which is the process of running through it all again and questioning the who-what-when-where-and-why of what we learn and ultimately see depicted on screen. Again, avoiding the big reveal button, let me put it this way. The movie comes together too neatly in many ways. Things are uncovered and learned, which by being so surprising to our three filmmakers, seemingly flies in the face of who these three men seem to be. They present as very smart and tech savvy, flawlessly proficient in communicating in today’s virtual and instantaneous world.

At the Sundance Film Festival when the film’s truthfulness was questioned by some journalists, the Schulmans and Henry Joost were aghast at the mere assertion that their film was dishonest or fabricated in any way whatsoever. They categorically denied every charge of falsity. I have my suspicions, but if I take them on their word, I am still left with lots and lots of questions. And you will be too. Questioning its legitimacy, however, does not diminish from the fact that this is one staggering and sobering essay on the state and age we live in.

I have a Facebook profile and I remember coaxing my mother, now in her early 70′s, into believing that she “had to get a Facebook profile.” She and I, and most everyone I know, are on Facebook nearly everyday for various different reasons. Nev is likely no different than most of us who probably smile with excitement when they receive a “Friend Request.” I have encountered wonderful conversations with long lost friends, heated Email exchanges with friends and colleagues, made new friends and professional contacts, and dare I say, delivered many a witty and important status update (!). Facebook is now interwoven across generations and feels so trusted and accepted by so many of its millions and millions of users. In its strongest moments, “Catfish” reminds us, in a frank and unsettling manner, how superficial, naive, and gullible we, and the generations to follow, may now have become.

I am not advocating that Facebook is an evil which must be terminated or anything ridiculous like that. In analyzing “Catfish” and in recalling its most impressionable moments, the film continues to make me question what role and importance Facebook, and Twitter and LinkedIn and MySpace and Foursquare, to name a few, play in our daily lives. I can only deduce that the more we become reliant on these social networking outlets, we are equally becoming more trusting and more vulnerable and more naked and exposed.

There is a comment I have heard time and time again – “Facebook friends are not your friends.” I am not sure I entirely buy in to that statement, but “Catfish” challenges that notion repeatedly for virtually all of its 94 minute running time. And whether the film is true, untrue, or falls somewhere in between, you will be affected and left questioning what’s real and what’s true in the world you have created for yourself. And that, for my mind, is the most uncomfortable question anyone can ask themselves.

Should I See It?

YES

A powerful film, which will stick with you for days.

This is a must-see for anyone interested in the film and/or involved in the world of Facebook or social media. Without reading spoilers on the Internet.

The film’s twist and concluding 20-30 minutes should be seen without any notification whatsoever…if at all possible.

The film is engrossing and memorable and will have an impact on you.

NO

This is not the film that has a big suspense/thriller twist to it. This is a flaw of marketing and while the movie packs a significant twist, those expecting a scary suspense film, will perhaps be largely disappointed.

The authenticity issue notwithstanding, the film is a documentary and that will turn lots of people off.

Perhaps if you have read the spoilers and/or know what occurs in the film, you will not have any interest.