Talhotblond

I heard this story on the podcast casefiles which led me to seek out a visual documentary. I can't believe this hasn't been covered by dateline or 48 hours, that is actually quite incredible.

As I look through my IMDb History, I see that I saw the 2012 theatrical movie but I don't remember that! So it was like a new story for me.

Well enough about me, I thought the documentary was generally well done. It's clearly low budget but it conveyed the storyv effectively and interestingly with participation from some of the people involved. It's one of the most ironic stories I've ever seen.

ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

I do not include a synopsis of the film/show -- you can get that anywhere and that does not constitute a meaningful review -- but rather my thoughts and feelings on the film that hopefully will be informative to you in deciding whether to invest 90-180 minutes of your life on it.

Effective immediately as of the day that I am writing this, I am docking at least one star for every documentary that takes us into the director's chair. I am tired of seeing the clapperboard clapped and the pre-show banter banter between the off screen narrator and guest, or the guests pre-show musings. Historically networks would have been embarrassed if that wasn't edited out, but now it's become common useless filler and utter garbage. Minus one star for you, do better.

My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre" 6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings 10 - A classic. (Less than 2% receive this rating). For Lifetime Movies for Chicks (LMFC), drop the above scale by 3 notches. A 6 is excellent and 7 almost unattainable.

This documentary was incredibly disappointing. The story definitely piqued my interest after watching CATFISH, but after only 20 minutes I was incredibly bored with its presentation and, especially, the narration.

It's put together like an incredibly cheesy story, the way it's narrated by one of the people involved makes it feel unauthenticated and overplayed. I found myself rolling my eyes quite a few times, "She started sending me photos... and, well, you can guess where it went from there".

I feel that documentaries work best when facts are presented in an interesting and creative way, usually in a way in which you can make your own conclusions. My first thought was that Montgomery was a disgusting man, but I really tired of the film telling my this over and over again.

When the monotone voice claims "Wow, so intense", I have to laugh. I can't say this documentary was for me, maybe it will be great for those who maybe prefer something that resembles a dramatic reading, or a lifetime movie.

Overall, I found it boring, cliché, cheesy, and rather annoying. Perhaps I prefer documentaries when the narrator is not playing the part of a character, and is stating facts and setting the scene, rather than relaying emotions with corny, monotone fluff sentences.

This documentary proves that love, or a twisted version of love, can lead to horrible things. This is not a simple case of online fraud. From the title and plot you can guess the true story is not going to end happy.

People who say this is brilliant obviously don't see its flaws. The POV fake narrator (which to me I would kinda find insulting) or the cross fade cuts to edit out the interviewees blabbering just looks bad.

But this story is explained very well, the pace is brilliant, the twists just make you as a very feel interested. Its a budget documentary that presented well. They did their research. If you keep with it it gets very interesting and shocking!

Stayed up late, watching this on ABC iView as an online "catch-up TV" documentary. I couldn't help but think how much the world depends on the internet. I could lost my job on Monday for complaining about work on Facebook. But then I have a network of contacts to email my resume to find another one on LinkedIn. I have meet people of the internet too. Luckily I said who I was truthfully. But what if I lied?

To me this documentary hits home. People live out their lives over the internet now. Its a fact and its sad. The internet has private information about everyone for anyone to seek. But you can also fake your life over the internet. Start chatting with people who are lonely and love hungry, its a recipe for disaster.

This documentary will clearly show just that. You never know who your talking too. The ending so worth the boring parts.

The premise of this film interested me, as I met my share of posers on the Internet when I first got online. Frankly, I didn't expect much more than your run of the mill Investigative Discovery segment, so I was busy doing other things online when the film started. I was not prepared to be immediately sucked in by its intensity. The very first comments by the narrator engaged me completely. The use of soft, tender music instead of the usual suspenseful choices in a crime presentation lulls the viewer right into the relationship between Jessi and Tommy and keeps you there. It beautifully augments the slowly rolling instant messages that draw the development of the relationship. The rhythm of the two together tinted the exchanges with a reflective eeriness that gives the viewer enough time to read, absorb and experience the eeriness of the whole situation. And the discovery at the end just blew my mind. A thoughtful and disturbing film that leaves you breathless and thinking.

I rarely see thrillers told as a documentary, or at least good documentaries, but that's what "Talhotblond" is. And it's done well.

It opens with a young man telling us that he was murdered - all because of lies told in a sexually-charged online chat room. Early on it seems we know the whole story of what happens, so I wasn't sure how they planned on keeping the film going. But there is so much more to this story. More than you could ever believe. They kept me watching because I wanted to try and solve the case, see how it all plays out. Although it may seem like they tell us the ending at the very beginning, they really didn't.

The story is paced well. We find out what we need to, when we need to, to keep watching, but never revealing all of the shocking secrets. It is hard to make a documentary about things said in an online chat room. I'm not sure if text across the screen is a good way, but I haven't thought of a better way. I found that it dragged a bit at the end, but that's probably just because I didn't feel that much justice was served to "Talhotblond".