Guest Blogger for "Catfish"

Since we're talking about films sparked by the relatively new phenomenon of social networking (See blog for "The Social Network" directly below), here's a post about the other computer generated story that has a buzz hummin'. It's called "Catfish" and it made a splash at Sundance. I couldn't get to it but my buddy John did. Here's his post:

It's appropriate that Catfish has been released just weeks before The Social Network since it's a documentary about how Facebook has changed the nature of relationships and how we interact with each other. Catfish revolves around Nev Shulman, an artist who starts a correspondence with Abby, an 8 year-old girl who, after seeing one of his photographs in the paper, paints a portrait of it and sends it to him. Abby is very talented and continues to send Nev her paintings. This leads to Facebook friendships with Abby, her family, and their extended family. Nev's focus soon shifts to Abby's sister, Megan and their relationship starts to deepen even though they have never met. Over time, events transpire which begin to turn Nev's fascination to suspicion, so he decides to surprise Megan with a visit. We see all of this as documented by Nev's brother.

This is where it becomes difficult to discuss any more of the film without revealing the direction it takes. Instead I want to talk about marketing and expectations. Catfish caused a stir at this year's Sundance where a "you won't believe the ending" buzz began. The premise of this film doesn't sound all that compelling; add the fact that it's a documentary and you can see how this film would be a challenge to market. But Catfish had a great hook and a trailer which makes it look like a thriller. But now for the expectations. Is this movie overselling itself? I found myself watching this film like an M Night Shyamalan movie, anticipating and trying to figure out what the twist is going to be. At that point I found myself being pulled out of the film. In the case of Night's movies that's not such a big deal since his movies are no longer good or twist worthy, but I digress. Night may now need an attention-grabbing marketing campaign to get people to see his movies, but this type of marketing can be a double-edged sword. What if the film in question is actually good but rather than deliver a "wow" twist it gives you something more thought provoking and emotional? Is the audience going to be let down? The film had a $21,000 per screen average in it's first week, a very strong showing. Hopefully now word of mouth will generate interest in the film and not the marketing campaign.------John DeFelice