You may have heard about "Catfish," the new documentary opening Friday in theaters. But you probably haven't heard too much about the story.
There's a reason for that.
It's a compelling, strange, mysterious tale of Nev Schulman, who started an online relationship with a woman he never met.
I'm going to stop there because it really is a movie you need to go into without knowing much.
I asked Nev Schulman about that and more in a recent conversation.
Gino Salomone: I'm happy to say that I was able to go into this movie without knowing anything about it.
Nev Schulman: That's great.
GS: I wish the same for the audience that goes to see this but how do you sell this movie?
NS: It's a film about contemporary culture. It takes place sort of on the internet. It looks like everybody's lives. You know we all spend so much time now in front of our computer screens on Web sites like YouTube, Google, Gmail, certainly Facebook. And so if you're at all interested in going to see a movie that's kind of about you, this movie is that. It's a very sort of personal and many ways a personal experience.
GS: As all of this experience is unfolding and getting more interesting are you saying to yourself I can't believe this is happening.
NS: Oh yeah. At times the experience was very scary, certainly always intense. I was nervous and feeling very vulnerable. I wanted to sort of stop and run for the hills at certain times but in the end as the story sort of unravels it became very clear to us that there was an intense human drama at the core of all of this and a very beautiful and emotional story to tell. We sort of hung on and buckled in for the ride.
GS: It's interesting that at times you think you know where the story is going to go and then it changes completely. You couldn't have written a story this good don't you think?
NS: Absolutely. People have asked us if it's possible that the movie's fake or that we had some sort of a plan in mind and my answer is I know my brother and Henry (Filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost) pretty well and they're just not that smart. They're good enough filmmakers but not good enough writers to come up with something like this and I'm not that good enough of an actor or an actor for that matter.
GS: There are times in this movie when you want to quit and not be a part of it.
NS: Oh yeah, I was ready to walk away. I think what made the experience so valuable was that like many people who have engaged in online relationships sometimes something comes up where you say OK, wait a second, maybe this person I'm falling in love with isn't exactly who they say they are. And at that point the easiest thing to do is walk away because the further you go and the deeper you dig, the more likely you are to get hurt.
I was ready to walk away and my brother said you know Nev, if you don't go through with this you may regret this for the rest of your life because you won't know what you missed out on and I thank him for that every day because he's right. I had an unbelievable experience and changed who I am to the core and I would not want to have traded that for anything.
Gino Salomone has loved movies and entertainment since he was a boy on Milwaukee's Northwest Side. He squinted from the glare of the movie lights that his family shot as a child, and his proudest high school accomplishment was a 30-minute "feature" he made for John Marshall High School.
He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in Mass Communication.
Salomone created a business called Rerun Reunions through which he booked personal appearances for actors from "Gilligan's Island," "The Brady Bunch," "MASH," and from "Saturday Night Live."
Salomone has one screen credit, the Lab Technician in "Naked Gun 2 1/2." He was cut out of two other movies. Hollywood has not called since.
He is also the movie critic for WISN-TV where his feature, "Gino Goes to the Movies" airs on the weekend newscasts. He also reviews movies for the Dave and Carole Show on 96.5 WKLH radio. His interviews have been used by E! as well as the TV Guide Channel.
