Catfish/bullshit

Below is a possible explanation (based on inisder knowledge!) for the air of bullshit that arrives with the new "documentary" Catfish. Also, I spoil the entire film. Ha.

Never underestimate the power of the visceral reaction. It's underrated in criticism, where rationale and/or rationalizing are much more important drivers, but it may be key to understanding Catfish, a new film whose tagline positions it as "not based on a true story, not inspired by true events, just true." (Meanwhile, as if setting the tone of dishonesty before you even enter the theater, its trailer, leads you to believe that it is a thriller, but it is nothing of the sort.) The film concerns the 22-year-old Nev Schulman, who is supposedly on constant surveillance by his filmmaking brother, Ariel, and his business partner, Henry Joost (together Ariel and Henry own the film-production company Supermarché and directed this movie). Within the opening seconds of the film, it just feels wrong. Immediately, there is something supremely douchey about Nev. He stares into the camera with the fraudulently pompous air of a dude in a bar who's desperately out to impress with his yammering and cool-guy vibe. There are subtle things like his perma-smile and far-off look that make everything he says seem contrived. It is an Internet cliche to immediately dismiss something as, "FAKE!" and yet that is the first thing I wrote down while watching this movie. If Catfish had arms, it would constantly be touching its neck.

Judge Judy has an arsenal of phrases she barks at people: "'Um' is not an answer!" is probably the most frequent one, but, "If it doesn't make sense, it isn't true," is the most useful. A lot of Catfish doesn't make sense. New York City resident Nev starts receiving paintings from an 8-year-old phenom from Michigan named Abby (she reaches out to him initially because a photo of his in that appeared in the New York Sun inspired her painted response). The inherent creepiness of a 22-year-old guy corresponding with an 8-year-old female stranger is barely considered. However, in gentle response to potential inappropriateness, Nev does begin corresponding with Abby's mother, Angela, who eventually informs him that Abby's gallery shows have resulted in her paintings selling for thousands of dollars. It takes Nev months to even begin to investigate such claims. Maybe his Google button is broken. In the meantime, Nev embarks on a full-on Internet-only affair with Abby's 19-year-old sister, Megan. He jumps into this heedlessly, without any introspection or questioning from others regarding why a reasonably attractive 22-year-old should need to begin a romantic relationship with a complete stranger halfway across the country via a medium that conducts lies so easily. He relies on this girl's weird, downscale modeling photos on Facebook, instant messages, texts and phone conversations as proof of her existence, apparently never going elsewhere to look her up. Or her mother. Or her phenom sister.

I saw where this was going as soon as he started talking to Megan (well, I actually thought Megan would turn out to be a dude, but I knew something was up immdiately, as would anyone). What took me a split second to realize apparently took Nev nine months, because it isn't until he's traveling close enough to Michigan to make meeting Megan an actual possibility that he begins checking out the claims of her and her family. Within a few minutes, he finds that they are almost entirely bogus (it starts with him discovering that songs she sent him supposedly performed by her are the works of other artists -- Google button fixed?). When he finally makes the trip to Angela's house, he finds that Angela is nowhere near the MILF she claimed to be in her pictures, Abby is not a painter and Megan is nowhere to be found because she doesn't exist. So begins a half hour of wringing the truth out of Angela, who lives what most urbanites would deem a bleak existence in the middle of nowhere with her bumpkin husband. She spends her days taking care of her two mentally challenged stepsons, who are so violent that they must be medicated and restrained so that they do not hurt themselves. Angela slowly spins her tale of seeking refuge in alternate identities via the Internet (a story, by the way, that was already getting tired in 1995 -- that this is the crux of Catfish should tell you how unnecessary this film would be even if it were entirely true). As Angela shares her pathetic method of escape, Nev nods and grins and plays the understanding friend the entire time. He never once shows any anger for being taken for a ride or any palpable disappointment for the woman of his dreams turning out to be an invention. We are supposed to believe that this guy is such a saint, he can withstand months of deception on pure compassion alone.

A friend of mine who's a friend of someone who worked on this film (and yes, that's a disclaimer -- take this with the same grain of salt you would any other non-attributed rumor) has a theory as to what really happened here. I post it mainly because I find it to be a satisfying explanation of Catfish's pervasive nonsense. My friend told me that he thinks that since the Schulmans and Joost do posses actual brains (despite what you seen on screen), they were in on this from the start. They knew they were being taken for a ride and were willing to hop on and play along (without letting Angela know what they knew) for the sake of filmmaking. There is a sharp contrast in tone between the pre-Angela portion of the film and the parts where Angela shares her misery. As a gentle wretch, she seems like the realest thing there. (Although her husband, who provides the title in a moment of redneck clarity when he describes the packing of catfish in shipments of cod to keep the latter fish agile and delicious -- "I thank God for catfish, because we'd be droll, boring and dull if we didn't have someone nipping at our fin" -- seems as fake as anything, so hmmmm.) It is my friend's opinion that Catfish is real in as much that it is a documentary about catching someone in the act, spun as a sensitive meditation on human connection and identity.0. In this light, it is, at least, grossly disengenuous. If in fact they did exploit this woman's pathetic and intricate attempt at escape (she created a network of friends on Facebook for Abby, Megan and herself to corroborate her lies) without fully revealing their knowledge or intentions, they're even douchier than Nev's initial behavior suggested. An eye for an eye is one thing; an eye for a camera lens is another.

Interestingly, my friend also tells me that Angela initially was on board with promoting the movie, and then changed her mind and attempted to sue them. I do not know the nature of her proposed charges (or, again, if this is even true), but becoming angry after uncovering deceit and wanting to take action seems a much more human response than anything Nev does the entire time he's on screen.

Since Catfish caused a rapturous stir at Sundance, there has been a growing murmur regarding the veracity of the supposed doc (actually, adding to the confusion, it's being sold as a "reality thriller"). Even at the festival itself, at least one person sensed that something wasn't right. In January, Movieline posted an account of a Q&A that was quickly cut off (telling!) when an audience member suggested that what he had just seen was a "faux documentary." The defensive chortling Ariel Schulman directed at that guy is almost word-for-word what he's gone on to tell Rebecca Milzoff in her story about the film that ran in New York this week: "So my brother is the best actor since Brando, and we’re the best writers in Hollywood?" Actually, the answer is no on all counts. And that's the problem.

Comments

[Anna]

Is there anything worse than rich people with the means to do things they aren't good at?

[Melu]

have you seen "Missing Victor Pellerin" (sometimes "Looking for Victor Pellerin") by Sophie Deraspe?
now that's a is it real, is it fake doco worth watching!

[kdub]

I saw the trailer and the girl's photos used for Megan's Facebook page look a lot like Sara Albert from ANTM.

[High quality REplica bags]

Lont post, but I enjoyed it ...

[slc punk]

yep. he definitely punched a girl at slc. i was a student at the time too. he had a reputation as a huge douchebag back then, and apparently he still is one.

[elijah]

ha. I went to college with nev (more commonly known as "skeve") and the call of 'bullshit' is apt. the only truthful part of this movie is the fact that he's a douche. after stealing my computer and trashing my room after mistaking me for someone else and then leaving evidence at the scene linking him to the offense, and after the month of law-enforcement related drama that ensued, after it was cleared up, he said "we're both interested in film making (i studied cinematography, his parents had assloads of cash so he wanted to "produce") so maybe we'll work together someday!" sadly, he didn't call me to take part in this steaming pile of shit.
and for the record, when i accused him, the obvious culprit, his defense to the school security staff was that I was a friend of the girl he date raped and i was just out to get him in her honor (i never knew the girl). douche. some things never change.

[Marcel]

You're assuming it's fake. That's just your opinion and you at least admit it. Your readers, however, are buying your story seemingly as easily as Nev bought Angela's. What gullible schmucks. (fyi: only one son was medicated for self abuse.)

[Sam]

Correction: Nev was 24 at the time of filming. Not 22.

[Doug]

I'm not with you on this one, man. I didn't find the beginning jarringly strange, I felt like I could buy his innocuous interaction with an 8 year-old girl. Their relationship came off as a professional artist giving advice to a little kid with big dreams. Not everyone needs to be consistently paranoid of being perceived as a pedophile; I think that's a fucked up element of our culture today, an inherent mistrust of adult men who communicate with children.

And since it was just a kid, and then that kid's mom, in the middle of bumblefuck nowhere, a slow ramp up of convolution to the story, I found it buyable.

[nnose]

It really wasn't a bad movie. I was mostly pissed at the advertisement, which my teenage daughter and I saw before the soon-to-be-classic "Predators." It looked good enough that we immediately paid for tickets and went to go see it right after "Predators." It looked like a thriller, was advertised as a thriller, and then was not a thriller. It was a rather sweet, sad documentary -- one that my kid and I would have happily watched and enjoyed had we not been the victims of blatantly false advertising. It was good, but that wasn't the problem; our issue was that we'd been lied to. At least Nev and Angela are making some money off the lies. I want my $20 back.

[Dumond]

I truly wish I'd read this before watching the movie, though of course I stayed clear of any spoilers specifically because the trailer marketed the film as a thriller movie and I feared I'd ruin the experience for myself.

With my perfect 20/20 hindsight, after witnessing the steaming pile of crap that is this movie, I know different.

It's like this movie is Angela (the fat fuck with mental issues), quite seriously. It pretends to be hot and sexy and interesting as hell and flirts with you imagination, in the trailer.

Then you go through the trouble of actually watching it, and what you get is Angela, the deluded middle-aged woman.

The fuckers even used a couple of poor mentally handicapped boys to jam some extra pathos into it, right at the end.

It's the most pathetic rip-off I've ever fallen across, in more than one way. Hot damn, I wish I could tell the world about it somehow, rather than a single site.

[Emill]

just watched the film and had to google reviews for it. though i did not think of it as a horible documentary, but definitely a misleading trailer. i only watched till the end hoping at one point to see a twist that the trailer suggested.... i was setup for the okie-doke

[Chris]

I'm way late to this, but thank you for the article. I just got the movie from Netflix and I can't stop getting upset about it. Most of what pisses me off was brought up in the article or added in the commentary.

One general and one specific point though that I'd like to toss in:

- Anyone in that lady's specific situation would be exceptional if they HADN'T created an alternate reality for themselves.

- She created this alternate Facebook universe of what 7 friends? In the movie they have that tiled shot as she names the people she created. "Well, there was Megan and Ryan and Lisa... and Katie... oh and Matt..." She names maaaybe 7 people. Sure they fill in the rest of tiles to make it seem like it's a tremendous web of interconnected people. But it's at most 7 people! Total bullshit. Who believes that this wouldn't be a clue for these guys?? That each of these young, vibrant people only had 16 friends on Facebook?? I'm a crotchety old man and I have 200 Facebook friends. So fucking stupid. At best, she sends out friend requests from Megan and gets a bunch of pervy guys to be her friend. The fact that Megan has 75 hairy Armenian cabdrivers as friends... nothing to concern yourself with there, Nev??

This movie is at best a complete joke; at worst, shameful exploitation. And the fact that there were respected media critics championing this (some even after they suspected the hoax) is depressing.

You wonder why Republicans keep winning elections? Keep being this tone deaf, city folk.

...but thank you, better city folk, for the article!

[Emil]

What a bunch of sheep. This is not an article, it is a list of someone's opinions about a documentary. Why don't you think/see it for yourselves? Even the author admits that his evidence should be considered as accurate as any unsubstantiated rumor.

[Trudy]

inXZAv Kudos to you! I hadn't thought of that!

[blacksheepboy]

Real late to the party, but hey.

I thought there was quite a bit that was clearly 'reconstructed' mixed in with the bits that weren't. So both fake and real. But mainly fake.

But isn't the whole point more of a simple double bluff; that the film itself is the catfish, and we're the cod? So yes, it's fake, but it's meant to be...or is that giving too much credit where it may not be due?

[Jeff t]

Just saw this bullshit- on there way to Michigan theybare heading north via Waukegan Il and the Kenosha Wi?

Also Nev has a a sweet "tramp stamp"!

[Rogers]

It makes me wonder how people start a relationship with a stranger through the Internet, which is medium that conducts lies so easily.

[Sandro]

You do know that you haven't provided 1 shred of evidence? You just describe moments from Catfish and say that it didn't make sense to you.

This pointless, angry, horribly written rant should be on the Catfish IMDb message board along with all the other douchebags.

[Medicine]

OMG that is terrific! I adore your work! Guess I am not as up-to-date as your regular readers! I swear I have fallen in love with this blog... Great writing! You're an amazingly talented person, keep up the individuality :)