By Amanda Hegarty
Watching the trailer for Catfish, you’ll be expecting part thriller, part horror, maybe even part murder mystery. This is not what you get. The marketing for Catfish is misleading, but this documentary does deliver suspense and a shock of sorts.
Nev Schulman is a photographer in New York who begins to receive packages from an eight year old girl called Abby Pierce from Michigan who paints his photographs. He is inspired by her talent and continues to encourage her in her medium. Screen shots of facebook, Google Street View, MSN, YouTube videos and email show Nev’s relationship with Abby and her family being established and advancing. Through the social media that we’re very familiar with, we form a picture of the Pierce family. Texting and phone conversations follow as Nev begins an
increasingly flirtatious relationship with Abby’s older sister, Megan. This relationship very quickly becomes more intimate and so begins the precarious internet romance.
There is much humour in the first half of the film with quips from behind the camera and from Nev as they acknowledge the facade of online communication. The online correspondence is documented my Nev’s brother
Rel and his friend Henry who begin to suspect that something isn’t quite right as cracks begin to show in the “Facebook family”.
The ending is both bizarre and fascinating. You are expecting the ‘weirdo’ behind the Facebook account that the press have harped on about since Facebook’s inception. But this is not what you get. It’s about the humanity, the depth and complexities that may lie behind online personas.
Online relationships are a relatively new phenomenon, and we are only now discovering the effects of digital media . In the world of film, it is so easy to do cliche and reuse old material so it’s great just to see someone delve into the complete newness of this type of issue.
Some people have criticised Catfish for being a faux-documentary. Several scenes do appear to be orchestrated and played up for the cameras. But even if the self-proclaimed “true story” is staged, it doesn’t make it any less compelling. The best thing about Catfish is that it is just a great great story; the sort of story you’d love to hear from your friend in the pub.
It’s hard to review this film without revealing the twist. So I can’t tell you why you should see Catfish, just that you should.
