Catfish - The Social Network Meets The Night Listener

A few nights ago I watched the documentary Catfish.  I found the name of it on a blog somewhere about little movies that got lost in the "blockbuster" shuffle in 2010. I thought it was a documentary about some guy making friends with an eight year old girl over Facebook. I wish I could remember which blog I saw the description on now because I'd love to ask which movie they were actually talking about.

Just imagine I'm bracing myself for some sicko documentary about some documentary film directors proving that Facebook doesn't protect children from online predators - but something's off. First off the film is populated by hipsters. There's Nev (Nev Schulman) who is the "main" character in this documentary. He's a photographer...he's receiving packages of art work from an 8 year old girl in Michigan. The artwork is impressive. There's something flat about the colour, but it's charming because you know the picture has been painted by an 8 year old.

Then the tone of the movie chanages a little. Nev develops a little crush on the eight year old Abby's nineteen year old sister, Megan. I can understand why. The girl is beautiful and apparently is good at everything. Or is she?

I don't want to ruin the documentary for those who haven't seen it, and you really, really should. It's been a long time since I've been so engrossed by a documentary.

Here's the trailer in case you want it.

--- There Be Spoilers Below!!! ---

If you don't want it all ruined for you I would not read on. One of the great things about this movie is that while watching it I had someone sitting next to me I could turn to and say "WTF" to and who is slightly more innocent (and perhaps less of a cynic) than I am who refused to believe that the bad part was coming. Me, I was on to the whole thing the minute I head Meagan's voice.

I knew Nev was headed for disaster and that is what makes this film so touching. It really kind of is a love story. A sick, twisted, fucked up one where poor Nev gets his heart broken. Meanwhile nothing is as it seems. Angela turns out to be a sad woman, Nev feels a fool, and the real genius of the whole show is the guy who is too stupid to figure out his wife's online lover is sitting on his porch filming him.

Now since seeing the film I've let the Internet get to me, so let me just say either Nev Schulman is the best actor ever or Catfish is a real documentary. It doesn't matter really. I was pretty entertained and interested in the characters and that's good enough for me either way.