Resurrected!

I've decided to revive the old blog. Life lately has been one change after another, so in keeping with that theme, I've decided to change this blog to become a journal of the things - movies, music, websites, etc - that I like. No more incessant ramblings (I know, I know, I'm rambling incessantly right now...I swear, I'm getting to the point), just reviews of things that really blow my skirt up.




Without further ado...

In a scene near the end of 2010’s Catfish, a man explains:

"They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They'd keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn't have somebody nipping at our fin."

To say anything about the identity of the speaker would reveal too much about this mysterious documentary. As much an evaluation of the role (and the danger?) of social networking in modern society as it is a character study, the film is the story of a man, Nev, who meets a prodigious young painter and becomes involved with her family and their friends via Facebook. Nev falls for the young artist’s older sister (the "catfish"), but as they get closer, things begin to fall apart in cyberspace. What follows is a bizarre look at the duality of real life and virtual life in the age of social media.

A great deal of speculation, doubt, and debate surround just how much of the film is “real” and how much is made up. Doubters claim that it’s too bizarre, too storybook, to have not been staged. Whether the film is 100% real or somewhat staged is really irrelevant (though I happen to want to believe it is all true). As the filmmakers point out on a panel they do in the DVD’s Special Features, in the age of social media, real versus made-up is less important than the story we present. The persona we show the world via Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace (and our blogs) becomes reality to those who view it, and reality is rarely what it seems.