Roundup
ARob AGin Catfish Word
1. Our own Adam Robinson has just been announced as Guest Editor for the next edition of Dzanc’s Best of the Web. If anyone can up the game they set with the latest edition, Adam is it. Editor nominations are now open.
2. @ Jacket Copy, they compare the voice of Allen Ginsberg reading “Howl” to the voice of James Franco reading “Howl.” I was too ehh to listen, but you can if you want.
3. Saw Catfish, or “the other Facebook movie that is a documentary instead of a stupid drama by a washed up director,” the other night, it was refreshing.
4. If you are in NYC, I am reading Tuesday night at 7:30 at the excellent Word Bookstore in Greenpoint for Indie Press Night with Jon Cotner & Andy Fitch (for Ugly Duckling), Rachel B. Glaser (for Publishing Genius), and Timothy Donnelly (for Wave Books). Should be real awesome, would be real awesome to see you out.
Tags: Best of the Web, Catfish, James Franco, Word Bookstore
I just heard about Catfish the other day and was interested. It’s not getting released anywhere near enough for me to see it in theatre, but hopefully I can find it later on DVD or something.
I just heard about Catfish the other day and was interested. It’s not getting released anywhere near enough for me to see it in theatre, but hopefully I can find it later on DVD or something.
I want to know what the trailer to “Catfish” was leading up to there at the end. I can’t tell if I’m being manipulated into going to see it or if there is some big thing that they can’t possibly reveal in the trailer. Looks like a trainwreck, anyway. Not sure how I feel about trainwrecks involving real people, seems kind of skeezy. But all is permitted for the sake of art, I suppose.
Yeah, the trailer is a weird manipulation of what the film actually does. It seems misrepresentative, but I believe it was to hide certain movements in the film. It pays off in ways that the trailer doesn’t touch, and the less you know the better probably. I’d say go if you are interesting in a documentary that does something different than most documentaries (in a pleasant way, I think), not like a suspense thriller.
A) “the other Facebook movie that is a documentary instead of a stupid drama by a washed up director,” — the uninformed latter half of this statement (regarding a film you likely haven’t even seen) undermines your recommendation of this pseudo-documentary/stunt-of-the-month film. (see also: “Zodiac”)
B) Word is in Greenpoint not Park Slope.
the last 3 fincher films take care of any possible expectations for a movie about a website.
that said, i’ll probably still see it, even after the gutbore of his last.
I liked “Catfish” too, and I think you’re right: It’s a hard movie to talk about without spoiling it for others. I hadn’t seen the trailer until now (I actually didn’t know anything about the movie before I saw it, even that it was a documentary), and the trailer is pretty odd. Not sure what they might have done that would have been better, but I think this sets up weird expectations for the film.
You didn’t like “Zodiac.” Really?
Is “Catfish” a documentary? There’s some debate about its authenticity, and a sense that it’s perhaps as much a doc as “I’m Still Here.” I’m eager to see it though.
Blake: While I agree that “TCCoBB” was/is the cinematic equivalant of watching digital molasses drip down an octogenarians chin, I think that “Zodiac” remains something of a masterwork. “The Social Network” (which I _have_ seen) is “about” Facebook as much as “Zodiac” is a movie jus “about” a serial killer. Fincher remains one of the few aestheticians working in “the system,” that actually seems as interested in exploring ideas, as he is with pushing technological and/or aesthetic envelopes.
All I’m really saying is, maybe you oughtn’t write him off just yet. But then again, to each his own.
As for “Catfish,” it reeks to me of, well, rancid catfish – a dubious endeavour, to be sure. A “Blair Witch” for Generation Text. That said, I just might see it, too.
I have to say, I was not a fan. Either the filmmakers knew more than they let on from the beginning, in which case it’s just manipulative and not terribly original – OR they were genuinely surprised as they teased it out anyway, in which case they are bafflingly naive, narcissistic, assholes. Either way, I am hesitant to reward the outcome with any kind of praise.
Nick, I’m not saying I liked the filmmakers, or their subjects: The film was certainly not populated with likable characters. But I liked the film itself, which is a different thing altogether, at least to me. And I don’t care at all whether its real or not. I never care if something’s real or not.
Catfish: unless the filmmakers are incredible actors and skilled liars: real, not staged, discovered. I have spoken to all three of them a bit.
the trailer makes catfish seem scary
is catfish scary
Check out the (no spoiler!) review of Catfish @IAMROGUE. Think it’s real? http://bit.ly/93x17h
[…] near a month ago, Blake saw Catfish and posted about here. Well, Catfish finally came to my quaint Canadian town, and I saw it last night. It was good. It […]