Documentary Review: Catfish

Catfish (2010) 

Directed by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Written by Documentary

Starring Ariel Schulman

Release Date September 17th, 2010

Published September 23rd, 2010

Why can't I get interested in writing about “Catfish?” As I watched this potentially faux documentary about a guy in a relationship with what may be a fake woman from Michigan I was at first compelled then after the big reveal of the big twist I completely lost interest. Is it the filmmaker's fault or a case of temporary A.D.D? I’m not sure but I know I can't recommend a movie that I barely finished out of disinterest.

”Catfish” is a supposedly real documentary about New York Photographer Nev Schulman who begins an online relationship with 19 year old Megan Facci after being approached online by her little sister Abby, a surprisingly talented artist at just 8 years old. Abby painted a gorgeous watercolor of one of Nev's photos that appeared in a New York Newspaper as well as online.

Abby's mom Angela sent Nev a print of the painting and from there Nev through Facebook befriended Abby's family, including her older half sister Megan. The relationship with Megan grows as intense as any long distance relationship can get with sexy text messages, emails and late night phone calls. While Angela urges caution and other family members, like Abby's rocker brother get involved and cause drama, Nev begins pondering a real relationship with Megan. 

While on a business trip to Colorado Nev, his brother and the documentary director Rel Schulman and co-director Henry Joost, decide that a trip to Ishpeming Michigan to meet the family and Megan is the logical next step in what has been till now a sweet chronicle of long distance love, art and Facebook. However, the trip to Colorado also reveals a key lie Megan and Angela have been telling and leads Nev to worry that the whole thing is a sham. 

Before we get to the full critique of “Catfish;” the marketing of “Catfish” bears mentioning. Producer Andrew Jarecki, the filmmakers and the studios Rogue and Universal Pictures made a strange choice to market “Catfish” as some sort of thriller with a 'shocking twist' at its center. There is a twist but it's a sad slow reveal of something that will not surprise anyone who has spent time on Facebook getting to know strangers some of whom bring their sadness and desperation to social networking. 

Pretending “Catfish” is some kind of juicy thriller is likely the reason so many people think “Catfish” is a big fake out. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, fellow documentarian Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) is alleged to have confronted director Rel Schulman after a showing of “Catfish” and complimented him on the best fake documentary he had ever seen. Why pretend a documentary is some kind of Blair Witch-esque, found footage thriller when the reality is so much different? 

Maybe the filmmakers realized, as I did about half way through “Catfish,” that what they had was half of an interesting story based on a good looking and interesting lead character who goes all limp and boring in the second half when confronted with the unfortunate reality of his long distance love affair. I really liked Nev Schulman and was compelled by his relationship with 'Megan.' However, when they make the trip to Michigan the film loses steam and bogs down when Nev drops his New York superiority in favor of faux Midwestern compassion. 

Do I believe what I have seen in “Catfish?” Maybe, mostly, I didn't care if it was real. “Catfish” fails to stay compelling once it reveals its twist and how unsurprising and merely sad it all really is. Documentary or not “Catfish” just isn't all that engaging after the twist and certainly not as compelling as the bizarre marketing campaign that pretends “Catfish” is “The Blair Witch” or “The Last Exorcism,” films that brilliantly use the form of fake documentary to tell riveting faux real life stories with real scares. 

One could go on for a while about the dangers of online life about how “Catfish” details our alienation from reality through the looking glass of social networking but there is a better and far more compelling example of that alienation that is competing for Oscars right now in “The Social Network.” Director David Fincher's fabulized tale of the founding Facebook is far more on point about our alienation through the online world than anything possibly evoked by accident or intention in “Catfish.”

Movie Review Paranormal Activity 3

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) 

Directed by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman  

Written by Christopher Landon 

Starring Katie Featherston, Lauren Bittner, Chris Smith 

Release Date October 21st, 2011 

Published October 21st, 2011 

If you have seen one Paranormal Activity movie, you've seen all three Paranormal Activity movies. Yes, the characters are different in each movie but the style and the general set up and execution are pretty much the same.

Paranormal Activity 3 is dressed up as a prequel intended to shed light on how the sister characters from 1 & 2, played by Sprague Graydon and Katie Featherston, ended up as targets of evil spirits but the prequel aspect doesn't really matter much; if you can really tell which sister was in which movie you care much more than I did.

The bottom line is that the set up and execution is the same for each of the movies. Cameras are trained on a home where strange things keep happening. Cameras are pointed at the beds of family members, as well as in the living room and kitchen.

Long stretches of film pass with nothing happening until something seems to move. More time passes and the movements become more noticeable. Finally, a crash is heard and something potentially deathly happens as the audience leaps in their seats.

The set up worked in the first '"Paranormal Activity" movie because of the novelty of director Oren Peli's no budget approach. "Paranormal Activity 2" however, exposed the holes in this premise and added the hoary concept of a child in danger.

"Paranormal Activity 3" wears out the welcome of this once novel approach to horror filmmaking in the first 30 minutes of the movie. Irksome characters standing in for the mother (Lauren Bittner) of the two sisters, Katie and Kristi, from the first two films, played as children by Jessica Tyler Brown and Chloe Csengery, and the mother's boyfriend (Christopher N. Smith), are no different from the characters troubled in the first two films.

The boyfriend carries his camera everywhere he goes for no other reason than the plot requires it. He sets up cameras throughout the house and with no surprise whatsoever causes friction with his girlfriend, even as the cameras clearly capture the ghostly presence that is wreaking havoc throughout the house.

If there is one modest innovation in "Paranormal Activity 3" it is a rotating camera jerry-rigged onto a rotating fan base. As the camera pans between the kitchen and living room we know that it will reveal something terrifying eventually and the slow turn of the camera is an effective piece of suspense until it too wears out its welcome.

"Paranormal Activity 3" is yet another in a long line of cynical cash grabs that don't even have the decency to hide their commercial intentions behind even low rent entertainment. The modest scares of "Paranormal Activity 3" rarely rise to the level of those in the first film, mostly because they're basically reruns.