Film Review: Catfish

DVD: Catfish   7/10

Director: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Starring: Yaniv Shulman, Ariel Schulman, Henry Joost

Plot: two filmmakers begin to document a friend’s online relationship with a young woman and her family which he has never met. The relationship leads to some unexpected discoveries.

Documentary films are perhaps the most unexpectedly fantastic genre of film; perhaps because it’s not a form of escapism or full of explosions and car chases. However, Catfish is here to prove everyone wrong, as it follows a real-life, long distance relationship between two Facebook users. It follows Yaniv Shulman as he attempts to meet the partner he’s exchanged phone calls with, seen pictures of and messaged for a number of months. As well as his female friend, he also becomes a member of the family, having regular conversations with her mother, father and siblings.

Catfish is surprisingly chilling in its nature. The unexpected nature of the documentary leads to unforeseen circumstances that will leave you grinding your teeth without any typical high pitched music or gimmicks. Instead, the real life situation unfolds before the audiences’ eyes with ease, at a steady running time of 87 minutes which zooms by in an instant.

Whilst the documentary is interesting, particularly how it shows the way a picture can determine if you like someone or not; leading to phone calls and sending packages to one another, it does, at points, feel a little staged. Whilst it may be completely factual, parts seem a little far-fetched but overall, it is extremely exciting to see a feature length documentary entertain you for so long.

In Conclusion: Catfish is a breath of fresh air for the documentary genre; it almost throws found footage films out the window, showing how real life is far more interesting than set-up situations. Surprisingly though, the film is climatic by its ending, leading to an unexpected twist causing a confrontation which can only be described as cinematic gold.