Catfish

*******Spoilers Exist!!!!*******

The title “Catfish” fits this strange film in more ways than one. Having next to nothing to do with catfish, or any seafood for that matter, “Catfish” seeks to bring the audience on a journey through the bizarre true story of Yaniv Schulman's online relationship with Megan Faccio and the results that occur when Yaniv (Nev) discovers who is really behind Megan. The film was shot and directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost; takes place primarily in New York and Ishpeming, Michigan; and began as what appeared to be an innocent, almost hobby-esque documentary. The message that is presented comes out muddled at best, however, and makes it hard to understand what the filmmakers want to say about the subject material. Even worse, the 'real life' events come off as planned and scripted. At best, it seems that the filmmakers had a strong hand in directing where the movie was going. Each of these problems do warrant explanation, though, and so this review will function much more as an analysis than a review.

“Catfish” begins as a sort of pet project for Henry and Ariel, the filmmakers who decide to record Nev's life. The documentary gets interesting quickly when Nev receives a package from an 8 year old girl named Abby. Abby had painted a replica of one of Nev's photographs, and Nev begins an online correspondence with Abby through her mother, Angela. Abby continues to paint replicas of Nev's photos, and Nev becomes more involved in Abby's family. He soon connects with Abby's 19 year old sister, Megan. Megan and Nev begin a relationship through Facebook and via phone and text messages. After 8 months, Nev discovers that Megan had been lying; all of the songs she claimed to have recorded (and uploaded to her Facebook under her name) were taken from YouTube and the pictures of herself were taken from a model's website. At the prompting of Ariel and Henry, the trio head to Ishpeming to figure out what is going on. They soon discover that Megan never existed and that Abby does not paint; Angela had constructed fake accounts for both, along with a myriad of other false Facebooks for Megan and Abby's friends. The film concludes with Nev, Ariel, and Henry returning to New York and Angela becoming, if ever so slightly, more open with her true persona.

Near the end of “Catfish,” Abby's father relates a story about the transportation of fish to Asia on large ships. Initially, so the story goes, the fish would arrive all flabby and their meat would be tasteless because the fish would not move during the voyage. Someone discovered that if you place some catfish in with the other fish, then the catfish would force the other fish to swim around. The catfish kept the other fish active, and so their meat remained firm and flavorful. This story is an obvious allusion to Angela, and we seem to get the message from it that people like Angela are not only helpful, but necessary to keep everyone on their toes; that, somehow, by Angela creating fake persona online she is keeping the rest of us mentally agile. This is, in itself, very useful in our society which accepts Wikipedia as a legitimate source; the skepticism that people like Angela introduce to the Internet prevents everyone from becoming complaisant with the information available. “Catfish,” however, does not settle with this.

After Nev confronts Angela, we are presented with a miserably lonely woman who is using Facebook as her only means of living a life she had given up; she, in effect, forges the persona which she lives vicariously through. We are encouraged to sympathize with her situation and to realize that people who feel the need to do this are not malicious and should not be scorned, but rather should be felt bad for. Nev speaks this way both prior to and immediately after confronting Angela with (paraphrased), “I'm not angry with her, I just want to know why she did this.” Of all the people who should be outraged at Angela's actions, Nev only feels sadness that Angela needed to do this. Unfortunately, “Catfish” cannot even stay with two separate messages and must introduce a third.

The third message “Catfish” appears to offer is far more cynical than the previous two; that Angela and people like her are monstrous for lying to other people and for stringing them along. Despite Nev's words that he feels no resentment, we see moments where Nev has been deeply hurt by the experience. The night before Nev and the filmmakers reach Ishpeming, Nev shares some of the text messages exchanged between him and 'Megan', and though he initially reacts to them by laughing, he trails off near the end and covers his face with a pillow, presumably from shame. Later, when Nev is sitting in Angela's house having a conversation with her, he becomes very quiet (odd for Nev, who is always either talking or smiling) and finally says, almost tearfully, that he wants to go home. We cannot help but feel for Nev and, in turn, despise Angela for putting him through her lies for so long. The audience's derision for Angela likely peaks at the close of the film when it is revealed that, contrary to what Angela told Nev when they first met at her house, she does not have cancer. This came as a big blow to the author; Angela at that moment was not trying to keep up appearances. She was not covering for Abby or Megan, but simply having a conversation with Nev when she lied. So, the film seems to (perhaps inadvertently) produce the message that people like Angela are bad.

So, the three messages identified (one, that people like Angela are needed; two, that we should feel sympathy for Angela and people like her; and three, that people like Angela are bad for causing so much pain) are either incompatible or are contradictory. What is worse is that the movie seems to meander between these and fails to isolate one above the rest. This is troublesome considering the subject matter (online relationships) and how important it is for our society. Though the message (or messages) the movie attempts to get across is muddled, the plot has more than enough to wonder about.

At the opening of the movie we are introduced to Nev, his brother Ariel, and Ariel's friend Henry. Ariel and Henry, for an unexplained reason, decide to apply their film making talents to a documentary about Nev, a photographer who has just recently had his first photo publication. This seems initially understandable; we have seen many apparently mundane films made in the last several years (a famous one being a sort of stop-motion where a man takes a picture of himself every day for ten years). Things begin to get interesting when Nev receives a package from Abby, but he and the filmmakers do not pay much attention to it at first. Things pick up quickly as Nev begins his relationship with 'Megan', and the suspense increases as Nev tries to find out what is going on. Yet it seems oddly convenient that these filmmakers would happen to train their eyes on Nev just before this bizarre turn of events. Even worse is that the filmmakers seem to coax Nev into the most suspenseful, dramatic course of actions possible; when Nev first discovers that 'Megan' had taken music from YouTube videos, he just wants to cut off all ties with her. The filmmakers, however, encourage him to continue talking with 'Megan'. At its most innocent, giving the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt that they did not know what would happen, this is questionable film making. For a pure documentary, it seems that Ariel and Henry should not have been involved with Nev's decisions; they would simply be 'flies on a wall.' Considering the more sinister possibility, it seems that many of the events could have been planned out beforehand. Even Nev's behavior, though not altogether unlikely, does not seem natural. His lines roll out smoothly and he has an almost permanent grin on. When he first discovers 'Megan's lies, he is in a state of shock, but always keeps his smile up; he even jokes with the filmmakers about it. Perhaps this was just how Nev dealt with the strangeness of the situation. Perhaps Nev is simply very photogenic. Though the filmmakers insist that everything is real, there are at least moments where the 'reality' seemed too forced or too planned out.

So what can be said about “Catfish”? The story and subject matter are very interesting and address a major change in our society. But the movie can't seem to settle on what it wants to say about it. Even worse, the complete convenience and bizarreness of the film make it difficult to accept the filmmakers claims that it was all real. Because of this mish-mash of good and bad, the author is forced to give “Catfish” a mediocre rating; just 3 out of 5.

Red

Many action movies strike out for different things. “Snakes on a Plane” attempted to mix suspense and action (and awesome one-liners). “The Matrix” attempted to mix ‘philosophy’ with action. Some movies are simply for action, such as “Rambo” and “Predator”. “Red” mixes action and humor, and not simply as jokes thrown in amongst the explosions and gunfire. The movie almost gleefully offers outrageous action sequences, obviously pointing out the hyperbole of some scenes. Unfortunately, the movie seems to forget itself at times and tries to weave a serious skein of a love story and some semblance of a moral lesson into an otherwise exciting and humorous film. Nevertheless, “Red” manages to stay pleasing through to the end.

“Red”, based on a graphic novel of the same name from D.C. Comics, is directed by Robert Schwentke and stars a massive cast: Bruce Willis as Frank Moses; Mary-Louise Parker as Sarah Ross; John Malkovich as Marvin Boggs; Morgan Freeman as Joe Matheson; and Helen Mirren as Victoria. The film takes place sometime in the present, and ranges across the United States.

The film opens with Frank milling about his home in retirement. Little appears special about him, aside perhaps from keeping in good shape and his crush on his pension advisor, Sarah Ross. This, however, is not to last as Frank is suddenly assaulted by assassins in the night. Frank is revealed to be an ex-CIA agent, and the attack sets him on a race to gather his old CIA team together in order to solve the mystery behind who wants him, and them, dead. At the same time, Frank picks up Sarah and, through their forced partnership, slowly tries to win her heart.

As stated before, Red delights in nearly absurd action sequences. Frank is the quintessential ‘bad-ass’; everything he does is spectacular, and Bruce Willis is perfectly paired with the part. From the beginning, when Frank disposes of his would-be assassins, the audience is left with a sense of his impressive skills and, foremost, with the coolness of his behavior. Frank performs several other stunts, but one stands out for its blatant absurdity: During a chase, Frank spins the police car he stole and, while it spins, steps out of the car while firing his pistol in one fluid motion. The car barely misses him as it spins to a stop. One further example: After Frank meets up with Marvin, the two have a gunfight with several assassins. One fires an RPG (already obvious overkill) at Marvin and he retaliates by shooting one bullet at the RPG. Not only does the bullet hit the RPG dead center, but it detonates it and kills the assassin. Most of the first half of “Red” is replete with these outrageous scenes, though the action begins to die down near the end of the movie. These scenes revel in the absurd, rendering them simultaneously humorous and ‘bad-ass’. These exemplify what is good about “Red”. Unfortunately, the film soon latches onto its story and forgets what made it appealing.

“Red”’s plot revolves around two obstacles and a moral lesson: Frank’s wooing of Sarah and Frank discovering why someone wants to kill him, on the one hand, and loyalty/solidarity, or perhaps friendship, on the other. The latter half of “Red” switches gears with regard to the plot; previously, the movie considered things very humorously and light-hearted. Frank's abduction of Sarah and her attempts to escape are comical, and Frank is so much more skilled than his would-be assassins that there is no danger to his life. After Frank's team is finally reunited, however, the stakes suddenly ramp up; Sarah and Frank's relationship becomes much more serious and the danger presented to Frank's team is much more real. Frank narrowly misses death twice, and the movie makes us realize that Frank must face his mortality. This dramatic change in style comes off as very unsettling; why is the love and danger presented around Frank initially so frivolous, and then suddenly so grave? Though some vague attempts at humor are made in the latter half, they simply feel hollow compared to the events earlier. While this should be understandable within the context of the film (Frank does not yet realize the gravity of his situation until halfway through), the tone changes so dramatically that the movie comes off as disjointed, rather than mirroring Frank's level of seriousness. This disjunction prevents “Red” from really standing out as an action-comedy and instead creates some sort of a chimera of action-comedy-romance-suspense-drama that fails to exemplify any one part with greatness. The moral lesson, the author admits, may be tenuous; “Red” is certainly not a morality play. Yet “Red” smacks of a lesson: that nobody, even someone as 'bad-ass' as Frank Moses, can accomplish something alone. Frank is woefully inept without his team. Even when his team splits up in the final scene, they still rely on each other when things begin to go wrong. It is only through their teamwork that they succeed. While this is certainly not a bad thing to have, this lesson stands in opposition to the beginning of the movie which paints Frank out to be a one-man army. The gravity of this point, however, is certainly debatable.

“Red” is an enjoyable action-comedy that tries not to take itself too seriously. The humor derives from delighting in the absurdity of previous action movies; “Red” exaggerates action scenes to the point of the ludicrous. The film forgets itself, however, and tries to finish the plot in a very serious manner. This disjunction is too obvious and jarring to be overlooked, and this keeps “Red” from really excelling as either an action-comedy or an action-suspense movie. “Red” is simply a decent, if sometimes humorous, action movie.