Catfish

UK Release: 17th December 2010

Watched on TV: Friday 6th May 2011

Rating: 15

Genre: Documentary

Runtime: 1hr 27mins

Tagline: Don't let anyone tell you what it is.

IMDb Plot Summary: In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.

My Review: Catfish was one of the most intriguing films released last year and I was very excited to see it broadcast on More4 last week. And it certainly lived up to expectation. 

The best thing about sitting down to view this film is the absolute unpredictability it has; I found it impossible to predict how on earth it could end. In hindsight the ending is reasonably obvious, but the build-up and the horror film style of the trailer keeps you questioning and 

interesting and doesn’t necessarily truly reflect the film.

And this is where people have had problems with it. The way it was marketed is that it was a thriller, where as it turns out to be something quite different. This doesn’t take away from the film; it is still brilliantly tense until the climax, but you do feel a little... disheartened in a sense that it wasn’t quite what they made it out to be.  There was also a question of whether it was ‘real’ or not. For most of the film I felt that “yeah, this could be real”, but by the end I wasn’t quite so sure. 

Either way, it is definitely worth seeing as whatever genre it is, real or not real, it is still a great piece of film making and unique to our time. 

Score: 8/10