Movie Review: Catfish

I had wanted to go to the Dallas Angelika this weekend in order to see "Howl," the movie about Allen Ginsberg. They had it on the showtimes list of the official Angelika website, moviephone.com, and had posters up in the actual theater with the date October 8th on it. But then... Friday night, it mysteriously disappeared from all the sites and there were no show times for "Howl." I was SO upset... however, my friend Ashlie had been wanting to see "Catfish," so I made the best of a sad situation and we saw that instead.

I was worried going in because I had heard SO MANY weird things about this film. Plus, it is called "Catfish" and I could not, for the life of me, understand why. I was mostly hoping it wasn't about noodling.... which I was falsely told it was (Google it, it's creepy). NO ONE would tell me seriously! No matter who I asked, they would just reply with "You'll just have to see it!" One of my Aunt's best friends, Vicki, then put up a status on facebook recommending the film profusely, and she wouldn't tell me either. Even one of my hero's, Zach Braff, was buzzing about it and put up a post about the film that got me really interested. I even read most of that thread and still couldn't figure out what the film was about! So ... you can imagine all of the hype, questions, and worry I had going into this movie today. Luckily I was very pleasantly surprised. (Spoiler FREE for once!)

My first impression was that Nev (pronounced "neev") Schulman is SO BEAUTIFUL. I think I sort of missed a bit of the beginning exposition because I was so smitten. But after that, I became so enthralled with the direction this story goes. It starts out with Nev receiving paintings in the mail from a 9 year old prodigy artist. From there, the story takes so many unexpected turns. I never really knew where this movie was going to end up. Not once did I think I could predict it, so it was exciting. Not to mention, the three guys are so lovable. They are just normal guys, living and working in NYC, and are so relatable and easy to connect with. And on top of this, the movie is edited so well. I felt like it was not only a good story, but a quality documentary.

Overall, I really liked this film, and the more time I spend away from it, the more I like it. I think I want to see it again. It's a slightly uncomfortable look at Facebook, technological correspondence, and what some people will do with it. It will make you laugh, feel uncomfortable, be confused, be excited, and in the end, this film will really make you think. And as to why it is called "Catfish" ... I guess you'll just have to see it.

HAH!