Catfish (2010)

Young filmmakers document their colleague's budding online friendship with a young woman and her family which leads to an unexpected series of discoveries.

Directors:

Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Stars:

Yaniv Schulman, Ariel Schulman, Henry Joost

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Yaniv Schulman	...	Himself (as Yaniv 'Nev' Schulman)
Ariel Schulman	...	Himself (as Ariel 'Rel' Schulman)
Henry Joost	...	Himself
Angela Wesselman-Pierce	...	Herself (as Angela Wesselman)
Melody C. Roscher	...	Herself
Wendy Whelan	...	Dancer: Morphoses
Craig Hall	...	Dancer: Morphoses
Tiler Peck	...	Dancer: Morphoses
Drew Jacoby	...	Dancer: Morphoses
Rubi Pronk	...	Dancer: Morphoses
Adrian Danchig-Waring	...	Dancer: Morphoses

Storyline

In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.

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Plot Keywords:

filmmaker | painting | photograph | michigan | photographer | 

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Taglines:

Don't let anyone tell you what it is.

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Genres:

Documentary | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sexual references

Details

Official Sites:

Rogue [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 December 2010 (Netherlands)

Also Known As:

Sum

Filming Locations:

Michigan, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$257,285 (USA) (17 September 2010)

Gross:

$3,234,373 (USA) (26 November 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Supermarché, Hit The Ground Running Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of Angela's and Megan's "real" friends on Facebook who shared songs and advice turned out to also be a fictional character called Denton Rose who won America's Dream Date as a fictional character in 2006. The character appeared on Fox, and the WSJ and was offered the lead role in a DreamWorks film.

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Quotes

Yaniv Schulman: [First lines] If this is your documentary, you're doing a bad job.
Ariel Schulman: Why?
Yaniv Schulman: Because you're catching me when I don't want to talk about things.
Ariel Schulman: How should we do it?
Yaniv Schulman: Set it up, organise a time with me, put together some materials, emails, we'll get the Facebook conversations printed out and we'll really talk about it.

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Crazy Credits

The opening logos are recorded off a computer (specifically a Mac). The Universal logo is shown as someone using Google Earth. The Relativity Media logo is shown as if it was an online video. The Rogue Pictures logo is shown as a desktop icon.

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Connections

References Casablanca (1942)

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Soundtracks

"Saint European King Days"
Written by Ervin Trofimov & Erkki Hobe
Performed by Opium Flirt
Published by Opium Flirt
Courtesy of Opium Flirt Records

User Reviews

An interesting character study

If somebody made me choose a favorite film genre, psychological thriller would quite possibly be my answer. Films that include incredible twist endings (Oldboy) or have elaborate story lines that make you think (Inception) are definitely some of the best times to be had when it comes to an entertaining movie experience. Catfish was marketed as a film that was not only a thriller, but also contained "a shattering conclusion" that was compared to Alfred Hitchcock. In the end, it didn't really have either of those things.

Catfish had this vibe the entire film like it was leading towards something dark near its conclusion. As Nev makes his way to Michigan, you get more and more anxious as he nears his destination. Even the music gets really unsettling. Is Megan's family going to be a bunch of chainsaw wielding cannibals or have Angela and Vince been keeping a kidnapped girl named Megan chained in their basement for weeks to lead young, single guys out there for them to torture as some sort of twisted way to get off? No, it's nothing like that. Catfish never really became thrilling or even came near diving into dark territory.

What Catfish winds up being is an interesting character study presented as a documentary. The film's heart resides in who Megan really is and how the entire experience affects Nev. Once the pieces of the puzzle are put together and everything falls into place, Catfish turns out to be a very raw, emotional, and heartfelt film. What's intriguing is the film revolves around Facebook and with The Social Network hitting theaters in about two weeks, it seems like a bit of a bold move.

What is arguably the best scene in the film is when it's actually explained why Catfish was chosen as the title in the final minutes. It is a pretty incredible explanation and fits the film perfectly.

Catfish isn't necessarily a bad film, in fact, it's pretty powerful once it really gets going. It probably isn't what you're expecting though. While Catfish is laugh out loud at certain points in the film, at its core, it's a documented love story that mostly resides on the internet. Maybe it just comes from personal experience, the way the film was presented, or the on-screen presence of the characters in the film, but Catfish felt genuine which isn't something that can be said about many films that have come out this year.