Catfish

It can be blackened, seared, grilled, fried, country fried or cajun. Southern kitchens may render the fish barely recognizable, but Catfish the film tells a story of an identity crisis even more profound.

Catfish has nothing to do with fish and everything to do with identity: It is a documentary about a New York City photographer’s relationship with a rural Michigan family. One day Nev, the photographer, receives an unsolicited painting of one of his photos from an 8-year-old named Abby. He begins to form a rapport with her through Facebook, and as the weeks and months go on, he also gets to know her mother, Angela, and forms a romantic relationship with Abby’s sister, Megan. At some point, Nev and his friends begin to realize that something is a bit off with this family. On the way back from a dance festival, the filmmakers decide to make an impromptu stop in Michigan to investigate. What they find is fairly disturbing.

Catfish incorporates and explores the issues of the social-networking age. It is an important and profound addition to the documentary canon, as it is indicative of both a new way of social interaction and a new era of democratized filmmaking. The film screams amateur in every way: It is shot with at least two different types of cameras, one clearly not even in HD­; the images of computer screens are horrendously pixelated; and the treatment of the subject matter is often unprofessional and insensitive.

But that’s the beauty of this type of filmmaking—there’s no need to be objective or fair. Catfish brings cinema verite back to its big screen documentary roots, ratcheting it up a level by leaving it to a bunch of guys who got together and decided to document a cool story. The film’s narrative as well as its existence personify the impersonality of our technological age. There is a growing disconnect between people, and Catfish tells the story of what can go wrong when that disconnect is abused. Perhaps the filmmakers also exploit this social disengagement, but without their unscripted audacity, the world would never get such a relevant look at itself.