The trailer to catfish is extremely intriguing. It’s the stuff viral films are made of, or at least try to achieve, coupled with that too-real-to-be-real-so it’s-gotta-be-fake feel. With that, it appears to be mockumentary from the onset; something along the lines of Single White Female meets Paranormal Activity. Catfish is a supposedly true story of a friendship between a photographer Nev and his Facebook friend Megan. The story begins by introducing Nev, his brother Rel, and friend Henry. One of Nev’s photos gets published in the newspaper and this is how he meets 8 year old Abby. Abby creates a painting of his photograph and sends it to Nev. This goes on for a long time which prompts Abby and Nev to start a friendship via Facebook. He soon befriends Abby’s entire family and becomes close to her older and attractive sister, Megan. They start exchanging emails, text messages, and slowly they build a semblance of a relationship based on what feels like a human connection based on their constant communication. But soon, something starts to feel wrong to Nev. This is told in a very well played-out scene in the documentary with Nev chatting with Megan via Gchat. She sends him songs she supposedly recorded with her brother but Nev and the filmmakers start piecing together their suspicions and realize that Megan isn’t the person whom she claims to be. This gives them the idea to confront her, Abby, and the rest of their family in real life. Now I won’t ruin the movie for those who haven’t seen it. I’m also at a loss for words for the “whoa” moment in this movie but Catfish isn’t at all what I expected it to be. I admire the filmmakers for putting together this well-crafted and compelling look into people’s lives. More than that, it’s also interesting to note the timeless theme into this otherwise modern / digital setting which happens to be today’s Facebook age. Save for the slightly dragging pacing and a bit of unnecessary scenes, this could be one of the most interesting and entertaining documentaries I’ve seen in a long time.
