Dianne Mann I nearly stopped watching the film after twenty minutes because I don't have much interest in a documentary about the lives of privileged 20-something boys. I am so glad that I continued to watch (because I had paid $3.99 and I was determined to get my money's worth). Very soon after I began fast- forwarding to see if something might catch my interest, the film took off in a new and fascinating direction. It became an absorbing and haunting mystery, though not in any way the thriller implied in the trailer.Last spoiler alert here.Is the antagonist mentally ill or just so burdened with the hardship, isolation and emptiness of mainstream American life that she developed this unusual creative outlet? If she had not infringed on the lives of other people with her rich fantasies, would we have any reason to question her sanity? The question arises throughout the film as to whether Angela is being exploited by the filmmakers, but their kindness, compassion and lack of judgment (at least while cameras are rolling) absolve them of wrongdoing. I remain concerned that the viewing public is now aware of her name, the names of family members and her home address (not carefully enough obscured during the making of the film). Hateful narrow-minded individuals in our society can behave like trolls online and in real life. I will not be surprised if some IMDb reviewers discuss revulsion at her physical characteristics in contrast with Megan's. Angela is so vulnerable that I question whether she was capable of giving informed consent to having her real identity revealed. I can only hope that her identity and location were falsified by the filmmakers.By the end of the film, Angela emerges as a woman of quiet courage and strength willing to accept much (not all) of the responsibility for her behavior and its impact on others. Her sincere tears are not hidden from the camera. At no time does she slam the door on the filmmakers or ask them to leave out in shame or anger. At no point is she humiliated or vilified by those she has deceived. I hope that audiences will be as gentle with her as the makers of the film were.

Brittany Mcguinness Story goes fish mongers use to take cod from Alaska and ship it in a vat to china. They would turn mushy after all that time so a man had an idea to put catfish in with them to keep them agile and tasty. Going through life we meet people that keep us on our toes, keep us interesting, these people are the catfish in our life now as a reviewer I am going to tell you Nevs. Told through the eyes of Schluman and Joost's the classic story of a journey to the unknown into social media. This outstanding documentary describes the events of Nev as he develops an online relationship with an entire family hundreds of miles away. The story that unfolds as he drives to Michigan in a quest to find out who all these people really are. The open and closing scenes are both interviews of Nev and his feelings towards the Wesselman family, this depicts the change mentally of Nev from start to finish. Super imposed titles were used in this documentary to show information about Nevs journey. The documentary explores the theme of self discovery and deception to depict what can happen in social media as Facebook had just became popular, this shows the positives and negatives of instant messaging and the ways we use social media. Many people will feel "Catfish" by Schulman and Joost's is a sensitive documentary about Nev and the positives and negatives of social media and the deception of families and the people in lives that are our catfish.

Stampsfightclub Catfish follows the story of Yaniv Schulman (Nev) who agrees to be the centrepiece of a documentary for his two friends who track his online friendship with Abby, a young painter who sends him paintings. Soon however he is introduced to her family online and Nev starts to build a strong online friendship with Abby's sister Megan, only something is amiss.This documentary is something many people can relate to in this modern age of social networking. Managing and building contacts online, forming friendships and relationships and sometimes everything works out great, and sometimes there are surprises, and this 2010 film brings about many surprises for Nev and his friends.The technical marvel of this film shows the scary nature of what the average individual can accomplish online. Through searching through people's friends on Facebook to analysing people's own recorded songs to those that have been implemented from other websites, but more so the ability to simply use other people's photographs for your own personal use is something quite scary, and yet people do it for their own personal reasons, and in the essence of this picture, we are watching people's emotions tested in this marvel of online story telling.There are many boards and forums depicting the true nature of this documentary, whether it is faked, scripted etc. Whilst the realism of the whole story is quite shocking and maybe difficult to comprehend, I myself have used online dating/friendship sites and can testify that not everything is as rosy as it appears on screen.But Catfish isn't necessarily about whether it's fake or not. It's about the story and the very real aspect of our current online mastery. And this film depicts that through the use of Facebook, through the questionable phone calls and all technical aspects that make the internet such a phenomenon. And through this Catfish is a very entertaining story that depicts the technical age through some wonderful and varied editing, picking up on Google, Sat Navs, Facebook etc and is quite different from anything that's been done before.This film spurned a TV show in which Nev and his brother travel across America to meet people and to give them help in meeting their online romance, which for the record is shorter and usually more interesting than simply watching Nev and his hairy chest for over an hour.Nevertheless this is unique and if you've done the whole online thing, it makes it quite interesting to see someone else go through it to.

robinski34 It doesn't feel right to give Catfish three stars, because it may be many things but 'Average' is not one of them, and yet going as far as 'Good' seems too far somehow, and 'Just OK' would undervalue a thoughtful piece of work. It is an intriguing film, and certainly holds the attention. Is it really a documentary? Are Ariel and Henry really filmmakers and Nev the aspiring photographer? In the end they are convincing enough, as is the whole premise, but the questions that Catfish asks are spoken as soft and subtle enquiries rather than loud demands for self examination, which perhaps they should be. The outcome is eyebrow-shifting, but not really a surprise and it seems like arch naivety for the filmmakers expect us to be shocked. Despite this Catfish is a touching piece of filmmaking and worthwhile sticking with to the end, even if it's only to find out where the name comes from, perhaps the most interesting aspect of all.