Released in 2010, Catfish (in a nutshell) is a documentary about a man who falls in love on the internet. As his relationship with the girl unfolds on-camera, he finds himself questioning her existence and spends the rest of the movie sorting fact from fiction.
That’s the basic premise. In reality, it’s a bit more complicated.
This is Yaniv (otherwise known as ‘Nev’) Schulman, a photographer from New York City.
Throughout the movie, he is joined by his brother, Ariel (Rel), and their friend, Henry Joost.
When Abby Pierce, an 8-year-old artist from Michigan, initiates contact with him to show him a painting she made of one of his photographs, they quickly begin an innocent online friendship.
As the unlikely friendship grows, Henry and Rel document the New York side of this correspondence on the tiny digital camcorders that they always carry about their person. “For the first eight months, we thought it had the makings of a short film,” Henry says when I meet him and Nev in a London hotel. “It was really Rel who had the instinct to start filming early on, and he was just waiting to see where it went. It could’ve been about Abby and Nev meeting up in real life, a cute friendship that comes out of the internet. That would’ve been a pretty good film, you know? A 10-minute short.” source
He is eventually introduced to Abby’s small social circle and through Facebook, he meets Abby’s mother:
and, most importantly, Abby’s 19-year-old sister, Megan:
And that’s when things get interesting.
I really think that if you watch it with absolutely no expectations, as I did, you will enjoy it.
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SOME SPOILERS AHEAD
Catfish, in my opinion, does two things really well. One: it keeps the viewer suspended in intrigue. Who is Megan Faccio? Is she really real? Are any of them real? Why the hell is this movie called Catfish???
And two: it offers eventual closure, leaving no question unanswered, which others consider a disappointing anti-climax. Personally, I think the revelation towards the end of the film exposes a lot of real issues regarding the internet that people often take for granted.
As we join Nev in questioning Megan’s authenticity, we’re also forced to come to terms with the fact that nobody on the internet is real. Everyone is a hyped-up version of their true self: funnier, wittier, prettier, smarter, more sociable.
If you really want to get to know someone, or if you want to get to know them better, nothing takes the place of a good old-fashioned coffee date, awkward silences, bad jokes, annoying habits and physical chemistry. Relationships were never meant to be neat but that, I think, is what makes them beautiful.
Rel’s online activities have also been altered forever. “I’ve pulled back from exposing my life,” he says, “though I am seeing a girl I met on Facebook. She Facebooked me out of nowhere and the first thing I said was: ‘You look and sound great, but I’m not going to invest emotionally in this until we meet in person.’ One of messages of the movie is you can’t trust social networking at first glance. You’ve got to do your research and you’ve got to be defensive. But don’t be too defensive, because it might be a real opportunity on the other end.” source
More importantly, I think Catfish tells a much bigger story about relationships, escapism and how the internet is the perfect breeding ground for both.
Towards the end, Vince Pierce says:
There are those people who are like catfish in life and they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh.
And I thank God for the catfish because we’d be old, boring and dull if we didn’t have somebody nipping at our fin.
Which, when you think about it, makes Catfish a catfish in itself.
I loooooved Catfish~ I thought it really said a lot about how a lot of internet relationships are formed and bred, and it really confronts the issue of “realness,” etc. Ugh, I don’t even know. Obviously, it’s only one aspect of internet relationships, and not all people you meet over there are crazy, but I really think it speaks volumes re: how social structures in the days of the Internet work.
This movie really moved me. My brother got creeped out, but I was really sad for those involved.
Yes, exactly! It’s really sad but it’s also really beautiful when you see it from the POV of Angela and how trapped she is. When you realize her desperation, loneliness and her excitement at the chance to escape from her life and be someone else, even if for a moment, you can’t help but feel for her. I don’t antagonize her at all. I like what the brother said: “It’s not malicious, just sad.” I also love how Nev reacted with grace and good humour. He didn’t expose her by humiliating her. I thought that that said a lot about him.
So much to be said about the movie and I like a lot of what you said. I definitely think you can form a genuine friendship on the internet. Some people I know even fell in love online and are now getting married. It’s a great place to interact but it shouldn’t ever take the place of the real world.
I just downloaded this last year because my boss told me that it is one film I shouldn’t miss! This is what’s keeping me from reading your review. Heehee. But I’m excited to know what you have to say about the movie! See you (well, kinda) on Thursday!
Yay! Let me know once you’ve watched it. Yes, we shall talk then <3