Catfish (film): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Line 22:

'''''Catfish''''' is a 2010 film directed by [[Henry Joost]] and [[Ariel Schulman]]. It involves a young man, [[Nev Schulman|Nev]], being filmed by his brother and friend, co-directors Ariel and Henry, as he builds a romantic relationship with a young woman on the social networking website [[Facebook]].<ref name="Debruge">{{cite news |last=Debruge |first=Peter |date=January 23, 2010 |title=Catfish Review |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117941945.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 |url-status=dead |access-date=October 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100802030307/https://variety.com/review/VE1117941945.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 |archive-date=August 2, 2010}}</ref> The film was a critical and commercial success. It led to an [[MTV]] [[Reality television|reality TV series]], ''[[Catfish: The TV Show]]''. The film is credited with coining the term [[catfishing]]: a type of deceptive activity involving a person creating a fake social networking presence for nefarious purposes.

==SynopsisOverview ==

Young photographer [[Nev Schulman]] lives with his brother Ariel in [[New York City]]. Abby Pierce, an 8-year-old [[child prodigy]] artist in rural [[Ishpeming, Michigan]], sends Nev a painting of one of his photos. They become [[Facebook]] friends, which broadens to include Abby's family, including her mother Angela (Wesselman); Angela's husband Vince; and Abby's attractive and older half-sister Megan, who lives in [[Gladstone, Michigan]].

For a documentary, Ariel and Henry Joost film Nev as he begins an [[online relationship]] with Megan. She sends him [[MP3]]s of song covers she performs for him, but Nev discovers that they are all taken from performances on [[YouTube]]. He later finds evidence that Angela and Abby have lied about other details of Abby's art career. Ariel urges Nev to continue the relationship for the documentary, although Nev seems reluctant to continuecarry on. The trio decide to travel to Michigan in order to make an impromptu appearance at the Pierces' house and confront Megan directly. As they arrive at the house, Angela takes some time to answer the door, but is welcoming and seems happy to finally meet Nev in person. She also tells him that she has recently begun [[chemotherapy]] for uterine cancer. After leaving multiple messages while trying to call Megan, Angela drives Nev and Ariel to see Abby herself. While talking with Abby and her friend alone, Nev learns that Abby never sees her sister and rarely paints.

The next morning, Nev wakes up to a text message from Megan saying that she has had a long-standing alcohol problem and has decided to check into rehab and cannot meet him, which is confirmed by one of Megan's Facebook friends, but Nev realizes that this is likely another lie from Angela. After meeting with the family back at their house, Angela admits that the pictures of Megan were of a family friend, that her daughter Megan really is in rehab downstate and that Angela had really painted each of the paintings that she had sent to Nev. Nev thus realizes that, while believing he was talking to Megan, it was really Angela posing as her with an alternate Facebook account and mobile phone. As he sits for a drawing, Angela confesses that the various Facebook profiles were all maintained by her, but that through her friendship with Nev, she had reconnected with the world of painting, which had been her passion before she sacrificed her career to marry Vince—who has two severely mentally disabled children who require constant care. Through a conversation with Vince himself, the siblings learn that Angela had told him (falsely) that Nev was paying for her paintings, and that he had encouraged her to seize the opportunity to have him as a patron.