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Catfish (SPOILERS WITHIN)

Started by Buchstansangur, October 21, 2010, 01:16:50 AM

Previous topic - Next topic
Spoiler alert
Self-indulgent horse tripe.   

                               
                                                                                                               
                               

                                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                               
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DJ Solid Snail

You wouldn't mind just saying whether it's worth watching or not, would you?

I like the idea but it seems like it'll be disappointingly obvious that these are people are actors. I watched the first couple minutes and everybody was talking so achingly clearly and eloquently, every word out of their mouths screamed "Hollywood actor." I think I'd just find it difficult to tag along with the plot when the film's trying its damnedest the whole way through to make me think it's a documentary, but isn't being particularly convincing about it.

I'd love to be wrong about this, though.

Quote from: DJ Solid Snail on October 21, 2010, 11:31:39 AM
You wouldn't mind just saying whether it's worth watching or not, would you?
Look at the spoiler, I dare you.

DJ Solid Snail

Well, no. That would be decidedly counterproductive. Why, are you implying the spoiler is that it isn't bollocks? Hmm. Well, all right, I don't exactly have anything better to do today. But if it's lousy I'm blaming you entirely.

vrailaine

Quote from: DJ Solid Snail on October 21, 2010, 11:31:39 AM
I like the idea but it seems like it'll be disappointingly obvious that these are people are actors.
Is that a spoiler?

Didn't know it was out anyways, will watch it tonight.

DJ Solid Snail

Quote from: vrailaine on October 21, 2010, 12:30:11 PM
Is that a spoiler?

No, just my impression based on the trailer and the first few minutes. I'm back into it now, and it's quite likeable so far.

vrailaine

Quote from: DJ Solid Snail on October 21, 2010, 12:48:02 PM
No, just my impression based on the trailer and the first few minutes. I'm back into it now, and it's quite likeable so far.
The whole thing felt pretty fake to me alright.

Thought it was okay though, can remember some places raving about it during Sundance, which seems a bit odd.

boxofslice

An idea as to what the film's about or a link to a trailer might help in that opening post.

Oh, you can use Google. You typed that post so your fingers can't be that fat.

(The opening post shouldn't really be taken too seriously. You can safely view the spoiler. It is not really a spoiler, it was me being a dick)

boxofslice

Quote from: Buchstansangur on October 21, 2010, 03:01:41 PM
You typed that post so your fingers can't be that fat.

Certainly not as fat as your head.


DJ Solid Snail

Quote from: vrailaine on October 21, 2010, 02:51:22 PM
The whole thing felt pretty fake to me alright.

Even the
Spoiler alert
"heavily, heavily retarded" kid slapping himself in the face and screaming? That last act was all kinds of bleak. And I didn't find the insane woman in any way sympathetic - she was simply creepy as hell. If she's an actress, though, she's very very good.
[close]

Some Americans just seem fake anyway. Too cocksure to be real (like our Danny Dyers).

I think they're acting around some vaguely real situations, but that on the whole it's all orchestrated and written.

vrailaine

Quote from: DJ Solid Snail on October 21, 2010, 03:38:07 PM
Even the
Spoiler alert
"heavily, heavily retarded" kid slapping himself in the face and screaming? That last act was all kinds of bleak. And I didn't find the insane woman in any way sympathetic - she was simply creepy as hell. If she's an actress, though, she's very very good.
[close]
No, but Jesus Christ that wasn't much of a mood lifter,
Spoiler alert
did it seem like they were trying to use those two guys as baddies so we'd feel more sympathetic for her? I'm not saying they were probably a lot less work than they appeared, I doubt I'd ever be able to care for someone like that, but she knew what she was getting into, surely.
[close]

It's possible the whole thing already happened, and that they filmed some of it, then redone an awful lot of it in a way which yer one would've agreed to?

Junglist

Its rubbish. Utter, utter garbage.

Watch Talhotblond instead.

vrailaine

Quote from: Junglist on October 23, 2010, 11:01:44 PM
Its rubbish. Utter, utter garbage.

Watch Talhotblond instead.
Other people have said the same, is it good then? or just better?

Junglist

Its an actual, touching, real documentary on a similar subject. Far lower budget, but better.

Caroline

I didn't think it was terrible but I didn't think it was especially great either. I don't think it's fake, not entirely anyway, obviously some things have to be staged when making a documentary like that. Anyway I'd heard "oh there's so many twists and turns, you won't believe what happens" etc and I guessed pretty much straight away what was going on, I think when I heard the child's voice on the phone and it clearly wasn't a real child.
There are a few things that make it ring slightly untrue though, like when he finds the postcards in the mailbox. I find it very hard to believe that having sent her stuff in the post, he wouldn't have asked "did you get the stuff I sent you in the post." The part of it that seems that it could be fake is that someone could be as dumb as he is, like never asking to video chat, or get some "YOU AREA PILLOCK"-style photo of Meg that would verify the sexy girl in the picture was the one he was talking to.

Anyway, I don't feel like I wasted my time watching it or anything, it was mildly entertaining, but certainly not as thought-provoking or shocking as it was made out to be by some of my friends.

Vitalstatistix

This film really got on my nerves.

Spoiler alert
I would say that it's probably about 50/50 real to fake. These douchebags knew what the deal was with the (real) woman all along, but decided to make an exploitative faux documentary about it, feigning surprise / real reactions, and restaging various parts.

I just couldn't stand the main guy or his friends, and I didn't buy that it took them so long to google the girl's name properly to see if she really was a popular artist or not.

The ending's so pretentious as well, attempting to be so profound and insightful.. Eeuuurgh, fuck off!
[close]
[/rant]

vrailaine

Quote from: Caroline on January 11, 2011, 12:34:07 PM
I didn't think it was terrible but I didn't think it was especially great either. I don't think it's fake, not entirely anyway, obviously some things have to be staged when making a documentary like that. Anyway I'd heard "oh there's so many twists and turns, you won't believe what happens" etc and I guessed pretty much straight away what was going on, I think when I heard the child's voice on the phone and it clearly wasn't a real child.
There are a few things that make it ring slightly untrue though, like when he finds the postcards in the mailbox. I find it very hard to believe that having sent her stuff in the post, he wouldn't have asked "did you get the stuff I sent you in the post." The part of it that seems that it could be fake is that someone could be as dumb as he is, like never asking to video chat, or get some "YOU AREA PILLOCK"-style photo of Meg that would verify the sexy girl in the picture was the one he was talking to.

Anyway, I don't feel like I wasted my time watching it or anything, it was mildly entertaining, but certainly not as thought-provoking or shocking as it was made out to be by some of my friends.
The argument isn't exactly that it's fake, but that they were entirely aware what was happening from very early on... which they clearly did. It didn't cover her fake network of friends well enough to disprove the possibility that they were a really obvious giveaway. As you said also, it doesn't say they tried to do video chat or even a distinct photo, they would've mentioned her attempts at evading such things if they had asked, I'm sure.

I think people like it so much cos they feel like they're in on something. The film's thrived entirely on the whole "don't read anything about it" styled marketing, I fell for it. Dunno how it got received so well at Sundance in the first place though, old critics not noticing all the holes in the plot perhaps.
Quote from: Junglist on October 24, 2010, 01:20:10 PM
touching
Thought it was better but dunno about that.

EDIT: basically what Vitalstatistix said, I guess, cept I thought it was an okay piece of thrash(which is fine) at the time and its continued to annoy me more and more as its gimmick continued to draw more and more

Caroline

Also maybe I'm remembering wrong but I swear there was one point where it showed Meg's profile and it said she had 16 friends. There is no way a 19 year old girl who looks like that would have as few as sixteen Facebook friends.

vrailaine

Quote from: Caroline on January 11, 2011, 01:26:53 PM
Also maybe I'm remembering wrong but I swear there was one point where it showed Meg's profile and it said she had 16 friends. There is no way a 19 year old girl who looks like that would have as few as sixteen Facebook friends.
I think you may be right, ages since I've seen it though. Lord knows why they would include a shot like that though, it was reasonably amateurish overall, I guess.

Funcrusher

I think I just need to full-on spoiler myself on this so I won't need to bother. Saw it described by a reliable source elsewhere on the internet as "interesting to watch, eventually fascinating, made by moral midgets in search of a Hollywood calling card." Which sounds like it will annoy me, and I'm already getting the general gist.


Icehaven

#22
SPOILERS Until they got to her house and she and her family were introduced I thought the whole thing was completely fake. They obviously knew what the real score was from early days, and the least convincing bits were the first half of the film when they were filming Nev talking on the phone etc. But they would never have risked their potential film careers by putting those disabled boys into a total fabrication, they'd have been crucified if/when it came out that it was all scripted.
Anyway, the film maker's narcissism and lack of empathy gave it a really peculiar angle. The whole situation hardly came about because Angela was just a middle aged housewife pretending to be a pretty 19 year old to get attention on facebook. She actually Facebook friended and spoke by phone to Nev as herself first as well, then told them in person and on camera that she had cancer, and maintained she had a 19 year old daughter in alcohol rehab, none of which was true, which didn't fit at all with the supposed (trite and already well explored) theme of how easy it is to fake your persona on the internet and use facebook to present a better version of yourself and and blah. I think they decided to try and turn an obvious facebook hoaxer experience and the moment of busting, (which was what the road trip was all about in the first place) into a film about how easy it is to lie on the internet, without really considering the possibility that they might find themselves dealing with someone who clearly has serious and complicated emotional problems, is hugely naive and has a very difficult home life.
The 20 minute interview with the 3 of them in the DVD is very revealing. They just talk about themselves, deny any fabrication, go on about how easy it is to lie on the interweb thing, and that it all turned out OK because now she's got an art website and they're still facebook friends. All the potentially really interesting questions are unaskable becasue they can't or wouldn't anwer them as it'd give too much away.