My Movie Review: Catfish

My Movie Review: Catfish
3/5

Opening Statement: This either real or fake documentary is about a man ned Nev who has been associating with a family through facebook and phone calls. His brother and friend decide to make a documentary out of it, and when things start getting fishy (no pun intended) about this family they take a trip to see what, or who exactly they are.


What's Good: I am not going to spoil this film, don't let anyone spoil this film. If it is spoiled it is completely pointless to see. Plus the premise of the film is the suspense to finding out what exactly is going on with these people. Throughout Catfish I experienced a plethora of emotions. Mainly toward the end. The slick editing and filmmaking is  nicely done, I am convinced this a real story. If it turned out to be an "I'm Still Here" scenario I wouldn't actually be surprised, primarily cause whoever could write an ending like that deserves a handshake, a hug, yeah. ANYWAYS, this is what I like to call an experience film, because I knew that the ending was well talked about, and predicting several outcomes, I failed. This is a very emotional journey with a very emotional ending, in which your emotional response could vary, or be completely fucked up like mine was.


What's Bad: Unfortunately while there is a nice story here, and some nice edits, the substance lacks a bit. There is a lot of filler footage in this film, because if I wanted to I could tell you how this whole movie plays out in 2 or 3 sentences.  While the suspense is tight getting to the ending, and the ending overwhelms you, the rest feels unnecessary, and this movie does have a nice moral, a moral which I cannot tell you, but I think it would've been nicer if that moral was more reflected in this filler footage. 


The Rant: Real vs. Fake. I really don't see a reason to believe this film is fake, while the outcome is surprising and either over/underwhelming depending on your predictions. I will point out this it being fake would not impact my review in any manner, the morality tale has been told be it fable or not. With The Social Network same scenario, a lot had to be lost in translation from fact to film, thats how any adaptation of a historical event is. I'm sure Braveheart isn't how it exactly happened or Citizen Kane, however the audience isn't dumb, we know this. On the subject of Catfish you can either take the pro or con and it doesn't effect what the movie truly is, except I would give much more props to the writing. With The Social Network, that movie is fantastic, and the whole debate on whats fact and fiction needs to stop, it truly doesn't matter to how great the film was.


Oscar Possibilities: Best Documentary (if it gets enough publicity) 


Consensus: Catfish is less of a documentary, more of an experience, one that you can only thoroughly enjoy if the film is not spoiled to you. I am still thinking about the gut twisting emotional ending.