Catfish

My husband and I found ourselves in the luxurious position of having no plans this past Friday night. So...we began discussing possibilities and I mentioned casually maybe we could go to the movies and there's this cool-looking movie showing at the Alamo South Lamar...and my husband exclaimed, "I saw that on News 8 this morning and I want to see it, too!" We are just too adorable like that. Fortunately I bought tickets that afternoon online because it was sold out by the time we got there.

The aforementioned film is a documentary entitled "Catfish." The film reviewer on News 8 posed it as one of the 2 movies about facebook coming out this fall - but it is much more than that. The documentary follows Nev Schulman as he is being filmed by his brother, Rel, and Henry Joost (the 2 filmmakers and Nev share an office space in NYC). They decide to film Nev as he embarks on a relationship that begins on facebook and proceeds to mail, phone, gchat, and eventually a face-to-face meeting. Again, as the reviewer mentioned, this is one of those cases where "truth is stranger than fiction." He even went so far as to say that it's more of a reality-documentary - meaning it's more free-form and less agenda-driven than most documentaries.

My husband and I both enjoyed the film immensely. It unfolds in such a dramatic way and really tries to remain honest while pointing out some obvious flaws in social networking in the internet age. It was also laugh-out-loud funny, shocking in a jaw-dropping sort of way, and emotional. Somehow I felt it all in the span of 90 or so minutes. Kudos to Nev for laying it all out there for us.

There has also been some controversy surrounding "Catfish" - other viewers (famously Morgan Spurlock and Zach Galifianakis) have called its authenticity into question. However, the 3 of them claim that everything happened as it played out on screen - no script, no actors, none of it (unlike "I'm Still Here," Casey Affleck's 'documentary' about Joaquin Phoenix - is anyone going to see that?). I wouldn't suggest seeking out articles on the controversy if you haven't seen the documentary yet as it may spoil the big reveal.

I say - get out and see this one if it shows up near you. I thought about it all weekend and am really glad we were able to see it.

Also - I had one of the specials at Alamo South Lamar at the urging of our waitress. It was spaghetti squash, zucchini, tomato sauce, and parmesan cheese with garlic bread and it was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Check out the specials if you can, is what I learned on Friday.