Catfish

This movie is over hyped as a thriller but I can honestly say that the only thrilling part was right before the reveal of the twist. The story it built up very well and the acting is pretty great. I laughed at many point of the film and it definitely hooked me into the story and I felt almost nervous for what was going to happen since all the trailers and promos talked about thrilling scenes. I was kind of disappointed at the fact that it was nothing close to actually being a thriller. The twist was very interesting, and close to the heart since I know it happens in real life. This is a more extreme version of internet communication gone wrong. I won't say what happened since it is an actual interesting movie, but don't expect the movie to be a thriller, or else you will leave the movie with your head down and wanting your money back.

Don't be put off by the jumpy, seemingly disconnected scenes at the beginning of this film. I nearly hit the eject button thinking that this was nothing more than an amateurish attempt at an 'artsy' film. Just stay with it and you will soon be drawn into an intriguing real life story with a surprisingly emotional twist at the end. The film stirs up a range of emotions that you rarely experience in todays high budget, digitized action flicks. I wish that I could tell you more but that would spoil the whole thing! I will only say this; the film could not have been done prior to the days of social networking where "friends' can pour out their innermost thoughts for the world to read. A very humanistic portrayal of the strengths, talent and weaknesses behind the faces that you see every day at the grocery store or walking down the street. See it and resist the temptation to 'tell all' when you recommend this excellent documentary film to others.

I remember in the very late 90's discovering the world of Yahoo chatrooms ... talking this way and that way with total strangers, sometimes being myself, sometimes lying through my teeth. Creating new usernames as a female to talk to lesbians every once in a while seemed a fun thing to do as an 18yr old lad, never succeeding to convince any to talk dirty to me. HA! The things we do.

And that is where this movie comes in. Meeting people online ... checking out their profiles and thinking ... "yeah ... not bad", talking more online and getting to know them and developing feelings for this entity, god knows where on the planet, typing their words to you and maybe, just maybe feeling the same way.

And how much of it is true ... ?

This was an intriguing watch, playful and suspenseful and by the end, full of heart that is a far cry from the gripping thriller documentary style movie portrayed in the trailer (which I saw after at one reviewers request) but none the less, I enjoyed the movie for piecing together something many of us have done ... but just not to these extremes. Give it a go ... =]

It's 2007. Yaniv Schulman gets one of his photos in the papers. Then he is contacted by 8 year old Abby from Michigan who sends him a painting of the photo. As his friendship with the young girl over the internet grows, he gets to know her mother Angela, father Vince, and beautiful older half-sister Megan. Yaniv's brother Ariel and Henry Joost film him for a documentary. As Yaniv falls for Megan, cracks start appearing in the story. Yaniv goes on a search for the truth.

If taken on face value, this has an intriguing story of the modern internet world. There are problems with this idea. It's hard to take this on face value when the whole point is not to take things on face value. It's obvious from the start that the internet relationship is based on false grounds. The question for me throughout watching the movie is how real Yaniv is actually being. The whole movie could be catfishing the audience. In the end, it's difficult to take this completely on face value. On the other hand, the reveal of Angela and her psychological story are actually quite interesting.

The film centers around photographer Yaniv "Nev" Schulman, recorded by Ariel Schulman, and Henry Joost. This is all I'm going to reveal about the plot, because I strongly believe that you should see this movie knowing virtually nothing about it. If I even gave a synopsis, I'd be giving too much away.

It's a film with a rather dark tone, and smartly edited by Zachary Stuart-Pontier. The documentary does make some strong points, such as "Who is this person?" "Who can I trust?" "What's real, and what's falsehood?" It makes one wonder what length some will go to hide the truth, and wonder what they would do in a situation like Nev's.

The film starts off rather charming, but eventually the film ends up becoming so nervously unsettling, and emotionally devastating that it's painful to watch. I know it made me not want to know what happen, because it just so hard to fathom, but I just decided to grit my teeth, and keep watching. The film is highly thought provoking, question raising, and the tone Joost, and Schulman set helps the film immeasurably.

The film is hardly ever pretty to watch, but am eye opener to be certain.

I give Catfish *** out of ****