“Catfish” is for group viewing.
As distinguished from, but perhaps overlapping with, family viewing.
By group, I mean you, your older teenagers, their cousins, family friends with teenagers of their own . . . trust me, everyone will bring their own reaction and truth filter to “Catfish,” and discussions will start even before the movie ends.
“Catfish” is a documentary. We think. We’re pretty sure. OK, we have serious doubts. But that’s the point. Whether at the end of the movie you judge it as a straightforward documentary, a fake documentary employing very convincing actors, or some hybrid where only half the people are in a documentary and the other half are exploiting those naive souls — whatever you choose, write me a note after you’ve seen it, and I’ll be fascinated.
We start with a young, handsome photographer in New York City, Nev Schulman, who receives a painting in the mail from an 8-year-old girl in Michigan. The girl says she saw one of Schulman’s photos of a dance troupe in a magazine and decided to paint it. It’s quite good.
Schulman strikes up a Facebook correspondence with the girl, and she paints more of his photos. He then strikes up a far more risque dialogue with the girl’s hot and flirty and intriguing 19-year-old half-sister. All this is captured on home-style videos by Nev’s brother Ariel, a wannabe filmmaker. Nev, Ariel and friend Henry decide to make a movie about Nev’s budding online relationship, and see where it goes.
Eventually the three video- musketeers will go to Michigan to meet the girl’s family and flesh out some growing suspicions about what’s really going on in flyover country. What they find, or reveal, or create, is surprising, disturbing, illuminating, sad and very human.
And whether the brothers should feel guilty for what they’ve done is very much an open question. “Catfish” — chase it, and it will come back to bite you. In a good way.
“Catfish”
Rated: PG-13, for scenes involving online and cellphone “sexting” and overt sexual flirting, a few f-bombs.
Best suited for: Groups who love to argue about movies together, not for children under age 15 or so.
