Film Reviews

Catfish

• Rating:
• Director: Ariel Schulman
• Starring:
• Details: US / 87mins (12A).

Produced by Andrew Jarecki (Capturing The Friedmans) Catfish is an extraordinary venture into online identity and, with the advent of Facebook, how the lines of reality and fiction have become blurred. Rumours abound, however, that the entire thing is a cruel hoax, which might explain the bittersweet ending, but it's still damn fine watching. The less said about Catfish the better - just go see it.
In 2007 Nev, a 24-year-old New-York based photographer, was contacted by the 8-year-old Abby via Facebook: Abby is a budding artist from Michigan and would like to paint a portrait of a picture Nev took for a dance magazine. They begin a correspondence, which leads Nev into the contact of Abby's older half-sister Megan, an attractive model/musician/artist/dancer in her 20s. Nev and Megan's friendship takes a turn for the flirty and soon a bona fide online relationship begins to take shape; he also befriends Abby's mother, Angela, and a host of Megan's friends.
However, when Nev discovers that a song Megan emailed him, a track she swears she sings on, is actually someone else plucked from Youtube, the house of cards the romance is based begins to teeter. Nev and the crew decide to have it out with Megan and travel to Michigan to ask some awkward questions...
To give any more away would be a criminal offence, as Catfish takes an unexpected turn off the reservation and down a rabbit hole. What starts out as a bit of fun for Nev, the documentary begins to take a toll on his life, leading to arguments with his directing brother. But this is less about Nev, Abby or Megan, but more about identity in the digital age. If you can be anyone on Facebook, and you spend most of the day being that person, when are you yourself? Can you lose yourself completely? If so, does it matter? All interesting questions.
An uncomfortable watch is Catfish (whose title seems unfitting until the final sequences) but a totally engrossing one. And if it is staged, that's some of the finest naturalistic acting caught on film this year.

Review by Gavin Burke