CatfishMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 65 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
14 Iffy for 14+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 88
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    There's more killer suspense and shocking intimacy in this one-of-a-kind documentary than you'll find in a dozen thrillers. You'll laugh hard and cry too. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    To avoid revealing too much and spoiling a fresh and intriguing experience, let's just say this: Catch Catfish. Read full review

  • 83
    The Onion A.V. Club | Noel Murray

    Catfish is absolutely riveting, and even nerve-wracking as Joost and the Schulmans get progressively closer to learning more about their "friends." Read full review

  • 75
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    Even in an increasingly virtual world, the filmmakers suggest, keeping it real still matters. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    The facts in the film are slippery, but the revelation of a human personality is surprisingly moving. Read full review

  • 70
    Los Angeles Times | Robert Abele

    Catfish was built to charm, not indict, and on that front it makes for a diverting seriocomic wade into the pitfalls of Internet-based immediacy, and by extension, the manipulative mysteries of documentary assemblage. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety |

    Though editor Zac Stuart-Pontier assembles the sprawling personal journey into swift and suspenseful shape, it helps immensely that Nev is such a charming screen presence. Read full review

  • 60
    Village Voice |

    Whether you think Catfish is fact or fiction, it certainly taps into something true: the basic, common need to believe that what feels like love is real. Read full review

  • 60
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    When the going gets weird, Hunter S. Thompson used to say, the weird turn pro, but these filmmakers never transcend their own amateurism. They turn what could have been a brilliant exploration of the hidden corners of contemporary reality into an opportunity for gawking and condescension. Read full review

  • 58
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    In Catfish, the camera's-rolling readiness to trawl for drama leaves a slimy aftertaste. Read full review

View more reviews for Catfish on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 14+ Online life docu reels viewers in with suspense, humanity.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this documentary chronicles the friendships that develop between an 8-year-old painter and her Michigan family and the New York City photographer they befriend online. The movie delves into many of the issues intrinsic in Web communities like Facebook: the personas that people present (and how accurate -- or not -- they are), how relationships develop quickly, and how those friendships don't always have the same safety nets that real-life associations do. All of these issues are exceptionally relevant for today's parents and teens, so we recommend watching it together. Anticipate a little swearing, a few steamy text messages (read aloud), and some twists that may prove too heavy for tweens and younger.
  • Families can talk about online personas. Do they completely capture a person’s character? How can you tell what's true about who a person says they area online?
  • Are relationships forged online as authentic and full-textured as those formed in real life?
  • What about the idea of online privacy? How much do you share? How much do you keep private? Parents, talk to your kids about staying safe online.
The good stuff
  • message true2 Positive messages: The movie sends the very important message for teens that you see online may not be what you get ... and that connections that can initially seem strong may not be after all, especially when they’re cultivated in the greenhouse known as the Internet. Basically, the movie asks the question: Who are you on the Web? And who are the people you talk to there, really?
  • rolemodels true2 Positive role models: The people who behave badly in the movie end up sympathetic and, in an odd way, noble, given their circumstances. And viewers see that it’s human to make mistakes and honorable to own up to them.
What to watch for
  • violence false1 Violence: Some menacing, creepy moments, but nothing violent actually happens.
  • sex false2 Sex: One of the lead subjects reads some steamy text messages aloud.
  • language false2 Language: Infrequent use of "s--t," “crap,” “pissy," and "oh my God."
  • consumerism false2 Consumerism: The Apple logo is often visible on the laptop the filmmakers are using; the logo for Ray-Ban is also often seen. The iPhone makes frequent appearances. Many scenes show the characters visiting social networking sites like YouTube and especially Facebook. JCPenney is mentioned.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false1 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Some discussion of a subject being an alcoholic and checking into rehab.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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