This could possibly be the most important review I ever post up.
People who know me well will tell you that the issues that played out in this documentary have been things I have been saying and saying again about the virtual world. And I think Catfish has so eloquently taken everything I have been concerned about and tells a riveting wake up call to many people who may still be in this age of naivety. Now I'm sounding really serious about this movie, and I am.. but at the very heart of Catfish, some would even call it a love story; in an unorthodox sense of the word.
Without spoiling too much for you, I'll just say that this is probably the only documentary people my age need to see right this instant and if you want it you can get it from me personally. Catfish documents Nev Schulman, a New York photographer who begins a Facebook relationship with an attractive girl he met online and while things seemed perfect and sweet in the beginning; strange twists and turns lead Nev, his brother and friend to drive out to the girls home in Michigan only to discover a very shocking and interesting truth.
Now there's been a lot of debate of whether Catfish is real or not. Personally I believe everything in this is 100% real on the count that the same experience has happened to a friend in college before and I have written many thesis' about this issue. I wish I could say what it is but I really don't want to spoil this movie for you.
The final 45 minutes of Catfish is just going to put you through a ringer of mixed emotions. You are going to go from mystery, to suspense, to horror, to shock and finally sadness. Honestly, I was in tears listening to the final interview of the movie.
And very well done to the filmmakers who were truly bold, inquisitive, creative and understanding during the process of this documentary. They way they framed this movie was to feel like some sort of mystery/horror genre type film with a very, very shocking reveal that is probably going to polarize audiences into feeling either disgusted or sympathetic. And quite honestly, I still don't know how I feel about the outcome of this movie.
I'm not going to say much more about the movie. Just that this film deserves my highest praise and will become the subject of many student debates about the Internet for years to come. Be prepared to be shaken to your very core.RATING: 10/10