A still of the Vicari family from Netflix's Unknown Number: The High School Catfish.Every so often, Netflix releases a true crime documentary so algorithmically rigorous, so obnoxiously constructed, and so casually exploitative that its success is almost a foregone conclusion. It would, in fact, be a miracle if the film didn’t break through the clutter. Unknown Number: The High School Catfish follows in the undignified tradition of films such as The Tinder Swindler and The Social Dilemma, narrating a story so bizarre that they could’ve made 15 different versions of it and still had material left over. The version presented to us, although undeniably engaging, is perhaps the least responsible way that the filmmakers could’ve approached this scandalous tale.The crime that it revisits wasn’t entirely victimless. And while Unknown Number understands the tragedy at its core — the final 15 minutes contain enough evidence to support this theory — the way it chooses to present its findings is rather odd. The film revolves around… nobody. While it could’ve chosen to approach it from the perspective of at least three different people, it decides to make the story itself the protagonist. Actively ignoring all the different human interest angles on the table is unusual for any documentarian — one could argue that it is their job to uncover human arcs by sifting through hours and hours of raw footage — but that is what director Skye Borgman does here.Also read – Fred and Rose West – A British Horror Story review: Netflix delivers a true crime tale of Nithari-level nastiness; a deeply upsetting peek at pure evil A still from the Netflix documentary Unknown Number.You hear her on at least a couple of occasions in the background, absolutely on the right track. Why, then, does Unknown Caller resemble a collection of TikToks? It’s as if Borgman turned in a cut that was drastically re-edited by a scheming robot at Netflix. The difference in what this story could’ve been and what it actually is can be understood if you’ve seen Smriti Mundhra’s award-winning film A Suitable Girl, and the wildly popular Netflix spin-off that it inspired: Indian Matchmaking. While the movie was a melancholy look at the commodification of women, the show took the same idea and somehow turned it into glossy trash content.The movie investigates the targeted harassment of a high-schooler named Lauryn. She was only around 13 or 14 when these events happened, as was Owen, her boyfriend at the time. Before they even started dating, Lauryn began receiving hateful messages from an unknown number, declaring her to be unfit for someone as popular as him. She imagined that a jealous classmate might be behind the messages, but before she could get to the bottom of it, they stopped. The harassment resumed a year later, when the two kids had started dating; this time, it was much worse.The harasser seemed to know intimate details about Lauryn, and would target her insecurities. She’d receive messages, sometimes over 50 a day, about how ugly and worthless she is. The messages were extremely graphic — remember, these were children. At one point, the harasser told Lauryn that she shouldn’t be alive. Like any child would, she took the issue to her parents, as did Owen. Their parents joined forces and got the school involved. When they sensed that the school wasn’t doing nearly enough, they took the matter to the cops. Investigations were carried out by the local sheriff, during which several of Lauryn’s classmates were questioned.For around 45 minutes, Unknown Caller unfolds like a murder mystery, with several ‘suspects’ being introduced and interrogated. The culprit, however, is revealed at around the hour mark in a centrepiece ‘twist’. What follows is the real story. This is what the movie could’ve actually been about; instead, it wastes time on scandalous genre thrills. Unknown Number isn’t the sort of film where a crew doggedly reports from the ground. It’s a collection of talking heads, filmed inside carefully art-directed sets in a studio.Story continues below this adRead more – American Murder – Gabby Petito review: A 22-year-old vlogger is murdered after posting her first video in new Netflix true crime doc A still from the Netflix documentary Unknown Number.Lauryn, for instance, is filmed inside a re-creation of her bedroom, as are some of the other kids. School authority figures are filmed inside offices, while at least one kid tells her side of the story from a classroom set. It’s a rather on-the-nose , but so is the filmmaking. Unknown Number often highlights some of the most hurtful text messages in bold, frame-dominating letters. Towards the end, especially, it juxtaposes what Lauryn is saying on camera with visuals of the harassment that she suffered. It’s enough to suggest that Borgman was onto something.But Unknown Number is like Google’s AI overview of the real story. It’s neatly packaged, easy to consume, and emotionally undemanding. This is perhaps the most antiseptic, and unethically ‘aesthetic’ way to present what happened. The movie is terrified of emotional complexity; it is uninterested in understanding the actual lives of teenagers these days. But all of this is incidental; Unknown Number’s biggest flaw is that it is inexplicably uncurious about the most interesting character in it.Unknown Number – The High School CatfishDirector – Skye BorgmanRating – 2.5/5Rohan Naahar is an assistant editor at Indian Express online. He covers pop-culture across formats and mediums. He is a 'Rotten Tomatoes-approved' critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild of India. He previously worked with the Hindustan Times, where he wrote hundreds of film and television reviews, produced videos, and interviewed the biggest names in Indian and international cinema. At the Express, he writes a column titled Post Credits Scene, and has hosted a podcast called Movie Police. You can find him on X at @RohanNaahar, and write to him at rohan.naahar@indianexpress.com. He is also on LinkedIn and Instagram. ... 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