Catfish
written for www.theplayground.co.uk
Reviewed by James Cheethamjamescheetham.jcc@gmail.com
Admit it. You love Facebook. We all do. You, me, that randomer from last night who you can’t quite remember but you added them on Facebook anyway. Yeah, they love it too.
Social networking is one of the biggest devices of communication that our current social order is obsessed with. Whether you Blog, Myspace, Twitter or Facebook, you are ensnared within the elaborate web of our digital ages source of interaction. Naturally, it has become a topic that many a film or piece of literature enjoys to comment upon. Previously this year we greeted the biopic of the creator of Facebook, David Fincher’s critically successful The Social Network, with open arms. Now we have the independent offering that delves into the effects of social networking on our society rather than its creation.
Enter, stage left, Catfish. Is it a documentary? Is it a hoax? Who cares, because the question you should be asking is; is it a good film? Well I have the answer; Yes, it bloody well is.
Enter, stage left, Catfish. Is it a documentary? Is it a hoax? Who cares, because the question you should be asking is; is it a good film? Well I have the answer; Yes, it bloody well is.
With its creators stating that it is definitely a documentary but with many sceptical on this fact, Catfish follows the plight of Nev Schulman, with his brother and filmmaking friend documenting his burgeoning romance with a particular someone on Facebook and his gradual online acceptance into this woman’s Facebook family. As further details are revealed and our merry band of filmmakers pursue the mysterious figure of ‘Megan Faccio’, questions are thrown up and answered and we are presented with a truly moving exploration of a single persons loneliness. We see how the internet can transform an individual’s dream world into a temporary reality, said individual fabricating a life and personality to make up for the missed opportunities and unrequited loves of their past. Starting out as a rather comical comment on social networking, Catfish eventually devolves into a tragic real life depiction of a person’s attempts at escapism from a mundane and unfulfilling existence.
The marketing campaign for Catfish proclaims it as a big shock to the system, something that has been played upon and expanded, for what one can only assume to be further ticket sales. The last 40 minutes are not as shocking as you’d expect and there is hardly a massive rug pulled out from under the audience. But there is an ever growing sense of dislocation between the truth and the fantasy created and it throws up a tremendous atmosphere throughout the film that does continually unnerve and keep the viewer hooked. Although the narrative trope of someone not truly being who they seem is not the most original, focusing the entire narrative upon Facebook does make it socially relevant and connects with this day and ages current audience.
Catfish’s central argument can be seen to relate the film to the infamous Rear Window, the plates of glass across the New York apartment landscape in Hitchcock’s masterpiece being replaced with our digital ages modern portals; texting, Facebooking, youtubing, telephoning. They are all windows into different people’s lives, but in our modern era these portals can now be set askew, transforming the person behind them into something they are not, something they long to be.
Interesting, emotionally involving, sometimes disturbing and always unsettling, Catfish is definitely a film to see. With themes of identity, truth, romance and loneliness being abundant, it is hardly the perfect Christmas seasonal viewing material, but it is definitely a thought provoking experience.
Catfish’s central argument can be seen to relate the film to the infamous Rear Window, the plates of glass across the New York apartment landscape in Hitchcock’s masterpiece being replaced with our digital ages modern portals; texting, Facebooking, youtubing, telephoning. They are all windows into different people’s lives, but in our modern era these portals can now be set askew, transforming the person behind them into something they are not, something they long to be.
Interesting, emotionally involving, sometimes disturbing and always unsettling, Catfish is definitely a film to see. With themes of identity, truth, romance and loneliness being abundant, it is hardly the perfect Christmas seasonal viewing material, but it is definitely a thought provoking experience.
So next time your mouse arrow is hovering over that certain someone’s Facebook Chat Box…have a quick think before you click. You never know.
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