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'Catfish' a secret worth keeping

By Chase Koeneke

Published Dec. 3, 2010

Here's the deal: I can't tell you anything about "Catfish." The more I say and, consequently, the more you read, the more spoiled you become. The less you know, the better. How does that bode for the quality of this review? Poorly.

Let me rephrase my opening statement: I can't tell you anything about the second half of "Catfish." You see, "Catfish" has a twist so perfect, it puts Shyamalan (and even Chubby Checker) to shame. The first half of the movie is completely up for grabs though. Unfortunately, it's where all the criticism is deserved.

"Catfish" is a story about Nev Schulman, a photographer who lives with his brother and a friend in New York. Nev receives a painting of a photograph he took in the mail from Abby Pierce, an 8-year-old from a tiny farm town in Michigan. Nev begins a correspondence with Abby and ends up getting to know the entire family, including Abby's 19-year-old sister Megan. Nev and Megan begin to hit it off through Facebook and develop a long-distance romance. As Nev digs deeper into Megan though, he begins to discover some cracks in her story. And then, well, then we get into the forbidden second-half stuff.

"Catfish" is technically a documentary, which basically means any shots I take at the characters, dialogue, camera work or plot is immediately countered with someone saying, "It's a documentary. It's real life." But if "Catfish" had been made with actors and direction to fix these issues, the core concept would lose all its meaning. I guess the documentary approach is the lesser of two evils.

What I find particularly interesting are my thoughts on Facebook after seeing "Catfish." After "The Social Network," I began to like the social networking site again, despite having all but abandoned it for Twitter. "Catfish" has the exact opposite effect. But I suppose this story could have occurred on almost any social networking site.

It does bring with it an interesting couple of messages. First is thinking about exactly what you want representing you online. Even with beefed-up privacy settings becoming the norm, it doesn't take a whole lot to distort your entire online persona.

The second is being careful about who you're talking to. How well do you know those 743 friends of yours? I myself have 412 friends on the Facebook. I have no idea if this is high or low or average, but as I look over them now, there are some people I don't recognize at all. Am I really comfortable allowing my personal information to be in their hands?

Refraining from further PSAs, "Catfish" is certainly the most intriguing thing I've seen this year. Personally, I didn't really like it, which is why my rating is pretty average. But it's important that you go see it.

It's also important that once you've seen "Catfish," you keep your trap shut so those around you who haven't seen it can experience it correctly. I've probably said too much as it is. That being said, once enough people see it, it will be interesting to really analyze and discuss it. There's a lot to be explored.