2 brothers (Nev and Ariel Schulman) and their friend Harry decide to make a documentary about Nev's potential relationship with a girl he has met via Facebook. The documentary begins with Nev receiving a painting that imitates one of the photographs he took as a gift in the mail. He establishes contact with the painter and finds out that it is allegedly a very talented 8 year old child that is making these paintings. He also discovers, through Facebook and telephone conversations, that she has a very attractive older sister that Nev manages to initiate a relationship with.
As an audience we see Nev engage in numerous phone conversations and Facebook exchanges with Megan. Nev visibly appears to be falling for this girl, as evidenced by his facial expressions and words during the interviews conducted with him as the film progresses. However, we eventually begin to see Megan's story unravel as Nev realizes the songs she has been sending him to listen to are from various places on the internet, not her own work. Nev remains hopefully optimistic but we can see the doubt slowly creeping in as time passes. Eventually, they decide to drive to her house in Michigan and are skeptical of the stories that Megan's mom is trying to sell them in an attempt to protect Megan. It is eventually determined that the mother is responsible for fabricating the entire story as she is lonely and frustrated with her real life (she cares full-time for 2 disabled children).
This documentary poses an interesting commentary on social networking and the degree of certainty that each one of us can operate under when meeting strangers on the internet. It is also eye-opening in forcing us to question how much of a person's persona in the online world is real, as we see how one can cleverly create any image they want with enough time and effort.
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