Greetings again from the darkness. A brilliant piece of marketing for what actually plays like a film school project, Catfish can be analyzed from many perspectives. What I can’t do is put any of those perspectives in written form without taking away from the marketing gimmick of not letting someone tell you what happens.
Make no mistake, this is not a thriller by any stretch. It’s not even particularly well made as a film. It is, all skepticism aside, a documentary made by some 30-ish guys from a Manhattan loft office. Their film is based on interactions with a Michigan family after they receive a painting of one of their web-posted photos. The artist is an 8 year old girl named Abby. The New York photographer is Nev Schulman.
Nev and Abby begin corresponding through Facebook. The correspondence spins off to include Abby’s 19 year old sister Megan, and their mother Angela. What is unclear is whether Nev and his filming cohorts (Ariel and Henry) are as naive as they appear or whether they smell a real story. Either way, they continue on with the back-and-forth until a real cyber-romance blossoms between Nev and Megan.
Next, we find our boys in Vail for work and they decide to “stop by” Michigan on their way back to New York. And don’t we all just love surprise home visits from strangers? What follows is the core of the film and some insight into human nature. The reactions of all parties may surprise you, but there are no major plot twists involved if you have been paying attention.
There were only two ways this “mystery” could go and neither is all that interesting. What we really see is that … SURPRISE … there are lonely people out there. There are naive people out there. Neither of these type of people are necessarily bad. I believe this film is every bit as insightful into the real Facebook as The Social Network. The only difference is that movie tells the story of those who built it, while this one tells the story of those who use it.
SEE THIS MOVIE IF: watching naive and lonely people boost your own self-esteem OR you want to know how Facebook is really being utilized.
SKIP THIS MOVIE IF: Facebook is a foreign language to you OR you will kick yourself after falling for a crafty marketing scheme
Movie Reviews from the Dark 