3 out of 5

Director: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

The setup has been laid out for you already: guy meets girl on facebook, begins to suspect that things may not be all theyre cracked up to be, and so he and his documentary filming buddies set out to commit the truth to a digital format. Catfish is not an uninteresting movie, and is excellently cobbled together in a modern fashion that highlights the weird world of online networking. However, it is manipulative in presentation, and the marketing of the movie (dont tell anyone the end!) is naught but a cheap gimmicky wash over the actual film in order to generate buzz. Which it did, and does, and which is why I went to see it. That being said, at a certain point not too far into the movie you understand that you – as well as the lead – have gotten things wrong, but while, perhaps, disappointing, it is still an interesting topic and experience. This is either an incredibly meta statement on marketing and blair-witch style films, or simply an interesting documentary that was churned through a hype machine. At films end, Catfish is a fascinating watch, but unsuccessful as a documentary or drama, as it doesnt evolve much beyond a single viewings worth of material. If you havent already read the full description of the film elsewhere, wait a few years until your expectations have been forgotten and then give this a watch.