CineNiche

To review Catfish is problematic in several ways.   We could provide spoilers and dive into the plotline, but since most people haven’t seen the film yet, we would ruin the experience.   Another potential problem of a review would be jading your preconceived notions about the film itself and therefore again ruining the experience.    So in this difficult position we would like to briefly discuss the hype machine of this film. Countless interviews have been done with Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman that all describe the authenticity of the film.   In an early showing Morgan Spurlock ( Super Size Me ) told the two that their film was the best mockumentary he’d ever seen.   Henry & Ariel’s response to allegations that their film is a hoax add more intrigue to the hype machine: we could have never imagined the direction this film went.   The biggest problem is the gimmick of the trailer or it is the film’s saving grace, we can’t tell.   I...

Bill Maher, the stoned genius, creates a wonderful religious debate in his comic documentary directed by the controversial mind behind Borat , Larry Charles. The biggest problem with this otherwise brilliant dissertation on the logic of religion is that the dogmatic masses who should see this film - won't. In fact they tried to ban it. Religulous preaches to the choir, in this case its agnostic/atheist choir. The public whose immersed in their religious beliefs steer away from it and ignorantly label it as simple blasphemy. What makes this film brilliant is Maher's approach to the subject. No matter which faith monger he interviews, he remains level-headed without harshly attacking their beliefs. He's done his research here and the questions he posits only point out gaps or illogic of religion. Mostly he debates with evangelical Christians, but also Mormans and of course Scientologists. He is attempting through these interviews to fill in these gaps, but the questions he a...