What is Catfish?That is how they're selling this documentary: a big mystery that you can't have spoiled for you. The film starts with photographer Nev receiving a painted recreation of one of his photos in the mail, sent by a young girl named Abbey. Nev contacts the girl and her family on Facebook, and they become online buddies. Nev befriends many of Abbey's family and friends online, including her older sister Megan, and the two eventually become romantically involved. But after 8 months, something happens that makes Nev question how honest Megan, Abbey, and their family have been with him. What's astonishing is that this has all been documented by Nev's brother and his friend. Where the film goes from there, I can't say. Suffice to say, it is emotional, surprising, frightening, uncomfortable, funny, and utterly engrossing.
Few - if any - films have been as much of the moment as this one is. Much of the film is made up of clips of Facebook, Youtube, Google Earth, GPS maps, and other Internet tools we take advantage of every day. The film is just as often shot on camera phones and flip cams as it is on actual cameras. It's an investigation into the way we meet and interact with people, and how it has completely changed in the last decade. Even without the secret final 40 minutes, it is a great piece of film making. But when the ending comes, it really brings to light just how much of a brave new world we live in, how the Internet can bring together people that never otherwise would have connected with each other. That often, we simply want to believe what we're told, because the truth would probably hurt too much.
Our guide through it all, Nev, is a great figure. Funny, charming, quick to let his guard down. Perhaps it is because he didn't think the footage being filmed would become a movie, but Nev is always open and exposed to the audience. The film probably wouldn't have worked with a different person at its center, and the ending might not have been handled with the care it was had he been even a little more cynical or angry. There is a humanity to Nev that you don't normally see in documentarians (be it Michael Moore pushing an agenda, or Werner Herzog going on about the contrast between man and nature), and it makes for a refreshing and vibrant experience.
If I've convinced you to see this movie (and you absolutely should, it is one of the year's best), stop reading here. I need to get something off my chest that, while not a spoiler, would almost certainly change how you experience it.
I am not entirely sure this documentary is real, or at least wasn't staged to a large degree. I never once thought this during the film itself (maybe I am as naive as Nev was), but reading about the film afterward, there are simply too many things to ignore about it. My first reaction to that idea was anger and disgust. If this film was fake, there are certainly some ethical questions to be raised about the treatment of the subject at hand. But the more I though t about it, the more interesting the film became. There seem to be two camps when it comes to the reality of this film. One camp thinks the entire film is not real. What they find when they go in search for Megan isn't a person, but more actors in on the joke. If this is true, there is a central performance in the film that is among the best I have ever seen. Ultimately, I find this angle too hard to believe, and what we learn about Megan's brothers would shed a despicable light on the whole film if this was true.
The other camp is one I find more and more likely. Nev and his friends knew right away that Megan and her family weren't who they seemed to be (the clues were a bit too obvious to ignore, honestly). They decided to frame a documentary around this discovery, stringing along Megan and her family for months in order to get good material before going to find them. Nev and co had no idea what they would find at the end, only that it would be interesting. What they found certainly was interesting, and I think they quickly realized upon this discovery that a careful, tactful approach would be needed. If this is the case, it doesn't necessarily diminish the movie, but does bring into question just how much we can trust the film as a whole. But in a way, isn't that the point of the film anyway? How do we know what someone is telling us is the truth? How do we know they aren't just telling us what we want to hear? In this 21st century digital age, where anything seems possible, is there anything we won't believe? Which brings me back to my original question:
What is Catfish?
