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Reviews and SPOILERS

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Reviews and SPOILERS Empty Reviews and SPOILERS

Post by Admin Sun Oct 11, 2009 4:15 am

I just got back from viewing the movie and wow...I'm just...wow.

A movie that makes you think, and still wanna slap Michael's character.

I'll be posting a thorough review later, but first impressions:
It's wonderful to hear Michael sing and watch him dance. I'm still waiting for the movie that will make women all over the world swoon.
His first appearance in the movie took my breath away...again, like it did in Angel.
He definitely had to go from one extreme to another.
He was freakin hot and sexy.
I wanted to slap the little, little sister. A mouth on that girl.
Katie was harsh, but had to be, since her mother was pretty harsh too.

I think that's it for now.
bowing
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Post by Admin Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:21 pm

Has anyone seen the movie yet?
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Post by MissL Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:29 pm

no but i will it it comes out

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Post by MissL Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:14 pm

I sow the FT on line is very heave but i love ti but a sad mie was great at her part

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Post by MissL Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:17 pm

FT was a bit sexy tho and a bit sad ,funny the mother was so bad mother I wuder will mia de in a nuther movie i hope so

I love MF in black

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Post by Admin Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:05 pm

Ah, you finally saw it! YAY!
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Post by MissL Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:09 pm

YAY i saw it

it gets a bit additive i saw it on line

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Post by Admin Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:11 pm

Ah, thank goodness for online. I don't mind when people watch online if a movie is not available. And if Fish Tank goes the way that Hunger did, it will be a while before I see it on a dvd.

The nice thing is that you can replay certain scenes over and over again.
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Post by MissL Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:15 pm

I no Wink Wink

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Post by MissL Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:36 pm

wot wed site do you use to woch fish tank

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Post by Admin Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:13 pm

I downloaded it from Vuze.
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Post by Admin Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:18 pm

Some of you know that I'm taking a film production class. I wanted to enhance my video editing skills, but I'm learning to enjoy a lot of other things.

Well, me and another student went to the local film festival in Mill Valley, and the instructor asked us to give a little insight to what we viewed.

Since I saw Fish Tank, I gave a little review, plus mentioned that Michael had just received the best supporting actor over the weekend at another film festival. Also recommended it to the students and instructor. It was a little scary to stand up in front of the class, but I felt like I did some justice.
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Reviews and SPOILERS Empty AFI's Fish Tank Review

Post by Admin Sun Nov 15, 2009 6:39 pm

http://www.cinematical.com/2009/11/14/fish-tank-review-afi-fest/

by Todd Gilchrist Nov 14th 2009 // 5:03PM

Filed under: Drama, IFC, Other Festivals

The movies' penchant for wish fulfillment often requires them to make their triumphs monumental, but the new film Fish Tank makes a convincing case for modesty. The story of a teenage girl discovering herself in Great Britain's equivalent of a housing project, its very conception is steeped in understated humanity, but writer-director Andrea Arnold refuses to indulge melodrama at every turn, creating a film that feels like a less romantic counterpart to another recent coming-of-age story, An Education, but is just as substantial.

Katie Jarvis plays Mia, an embittered, hostile 15-year old who comes home one day to discover that her party-girl mom Joanne (Kierston Wareing) has a new boyfriend named Connor (Michael Fassbender). Though initially standoffish, she slowly succumbs to his charms, especially after he encourages her to develop her burgeoning talents as a dancer. But as she advances closer to womanhood, attracting the attention of a young man her own age, Connor becomes increasingly protective of Mia, eventually drawing her into a relationship that tests the limits – as well as the boundaries - of their fragile, fledgling emotional bond.

Suffice it to say that the film could easily have spiraled off into any number of conventional directions, turning this girl's tale into some sort of muddy, redemptive romance, or even a crowd-pleaser about overcoming adversity cut from the mold of Flashdance or Step Up. But Arnold's focus is on Mia's age, maturity, and circumstances, and instead aims the film at more meaningful human truths. At the beginning of the film we see that she's reached a point in her adolescence where she feels as much contentiousness as connection with other girls her age, due in part to the distinct lack of attention (much less affection) she receives from her mom, but also attributable simply to that tumultuous time in almost any girl's life; desperately in search of reassurance and support, she lashes out at the people whom she needs it from the most, alienating herself from them in the process.

Connor, then, becomes so many things at once, including a father figure, a mentor, and possibly, a romantic interest, all of which have the possibility of rescuing her emotionally and perhaps even physically from the squalor and unhappiness of her daily life. Simply by being interested in her, he begins to repair years of emotional damage, although what's most interesting is the way his support has as much potential to backfire and hurt her further as he helps her develop some confidence and a stronger sense of self-worth. Her response to his attention feeds his ego and fuels feelings that ultimately manifest themselves in unhealthy ways – for both of them – leading to a tender, passionate, consensual encounter that has a devastating impact on both of them.

Jarvis brings the right amount of inner emotional turmoil to Mia, no doubt because of her age and emotional proximity to the character, but never overplays her abilities, or her awareness of what's happening to her. There's a sequence towards the end of the film in which she tries to track down Connor, leading to a fairly terrifying series of bad decisions, and we get the real sense that Mia doesn't know any better what she's doing, or why, than she does. Meanwhile, Fassbender feels destined to be a superstar, precisely because he brings such authenticity to every role he plays, and moving from an emaciated prisoner in Hunger to an avuncular film critic-turned-spy in Inglourious Basterds to this, and succeeds at creating a believable and palpable connection between himself and Jarvis that doesn't judge his behavior or more importantly suggest judgment to the audience.

Most remarkably, however, the film manages never to venture into territory that feels too safe, comfortable or conventional, which is not to say that it fails to offer the characters a reprieve from their rough lives, but it never makes any of their options to clean or easily come by. Despite her dreams of being a hip-hop dancer, she's just not that talented, and her one opportunity to follow that fantasy manifests itself in a way that feels depressingly realistic instead of inspirationally implausible. Connor, meanwhile, isn't a bad guy, but maybe just a confused, irresponsible one, and his efforts to encourage Mia are sincere until he crosses a line he didn't realize he was even moving towards.

But ultimately, the film's end pays off this modesty of tone in a way that may go over some audiences' heads, but it feels more powerful because of its authenticity. While I won't spoil it, Arnold has really created one of the absolute best coming-of-age stories I've seen in several years, because it accurately observes that sometimes just being able to survive is triumph enough, even if all of your hopes and dreams don't come true. One supposes that counts as its own kind of triumph, and therefore falls in line at least technically with the other films that share its structure; but Fish Tank takes the terrible and the neglectful and fickle and fitful aspects of everyday life, and lets its characters find a way out without giving them a map, making them stronger in the process – and us as well.
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Post by Admin Sun Nov 15, 2009 6:48 pm

http://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/theWeekContent.do?sectionName=Entertainment&contentId=6250368&programId=1073754907&pageTypeId=1073754893&contentType=EDITORIAL

Fish Tank: British helmer Andrea Arnold follows her Cannes Jury Prize winning debut feature, Red Road, with Fish Tank, a vivid study of a young girl. Here newcomer Katie Jarvis plays with distinction a disaffected teenager, Mia. Loud, brash and ill-behaved, she dreams of being a dancer. Her clumsy mother’s new boyfriend encourages Mia in the beginning, but one incident throws things out of gear for the teen. Arnold portrays the claustrophobic squalor of urban wasteland and how this breeds anger and frustration. Mia’s affection for an ageing horse is just about the only redeeming feature in her life, and probably that is what keeps her sane. This honest effort shows how deprived families live in Britain.
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Post by Admin Mon Nov 16, 2009 1:59 am

http://cinemapoaching.blogspot.com/2009/11/festival-coverage-afi-fest.html

A far less histrionic but much better film about a teenage girl in crisis is Fish Tank, from Scottish filmmaker Andrea Arnold. Arnold isn't quite a household name in the world of art cinema despite racking up an Academy Award and two jury prizes from Cannes in the past six years, but she's already building an impressive reputation and comparisons to the likes of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach for her films about working class modern day Britain, albeit from a specifically female point of view. Fish Tank follows in the footsteps of 2006's Red Road and it serves as an amplification of that film's strengths as well as weaknesses. Like Precious, Fish Tank centers around a poor 15-year-old girl, Mia (first-timer Katie Jarvis), living with a self-involved single mother (Kierston Wareing, tellingly only 12 years older than Jarvis in real life) as well as a disarmingly foul-mouthed younger sister (Rebecca Griffiths) in a cramped apartment. Mia's an angry young woman who fights with her mom and sister constantly. She seems to have isolated herself from all of her friends and has flunked out of school; her only release is to practice hip-hop, dancing by herself in an abandoned apartment in her complex.


But into all this unchecked estrogen enters mom's new boyfriend, Colin (Michael Fassbender, last seen too briefly in Inglourious Basterds). Colin represents something of an enigma, to both Mia and the audience: free-swinging and juvenile enough to be mom's new boy toy but also sensitive and considerate, encouraging Mia when no one else seems willing. Mia, likewise feels conflicted by the presence of the new man in the house, lashing out at him in one instant, then sweetly asking him for money or help as it becomes apparent he's one of the few people who seems to care. Yet the longer he remains in the house the more the barriers of their relationship are tested, placing the two of them onto a messy collision course that arrives in a predictable place but not in the way we expect.


Much of Fish Tank's strength is derived from the ever-shifting interplay between Jarvis and Fassbender, feeding off of the queasy sensuality Arnold cultivates throughout the film. Thematically similar to but far less chaste than An Education, Fish Tank simmers with tension as the anxiety of impropriety looms over nearly every scene. Even the most tender of moments (Colin carries a pretending-to-be-asleep to Mia to her bed, slowly removing her shoes and sweat pants before tucking her under a blanket) pulses with unease as two people, one who clearly should know better, seem destined towards transgression. In fact, Arnold does such an exemplary job of building and maintaining this tension (which technically is "sexual tension" but I feel dirty even referring to it as such) that by the time she finally addresses the issue head on, the film utterly deflates. Unfortunately Fish Tank continues for another half an hour after that, which is where it loses its way. A gifted director but mediocre screenwriter, Arnold relies upon clumsy plot mechanics and too-obvious-by-half symbolism (the last shot in particular is a howler), which equates a lot of strum and drang but not much progression or enriching of the characters. Fish Tank climaxes with a good deal of frenzy and angst but it seems to have been imported from a blunter, far less carefully observed film.


This may dull the overall impact of the film but doesn't quite negate it. Filmed in 4x3 Academy ratio, the film emphasizes claustrophobia and tightly composed frames as though Mia can't even escape the small box she's been placed in on screen. It's a household where everyone lives on top of each other. Where everyone shows up to the breakfast table in various stages of undress and thin walls barely disguise the lovemaking in the next room. Arnold's unadorned style consisting of long, peering takes places us in the role of the voyeur, catching stray moments of both sadness and humanity as they unfold.


Jarvis gives a raw, animalistic performance, like a beaten dog backed into a corner. It's a performance built around rage and distrust and the film's at its most touching when we see Mia able to let down her guard enough to merely peacefully coexist with her family. But the story of the film is Fassbender who, I suspect, will not be a secret for much longer. With soft eyes and a boyish grin, Colin lets his thoughts run away from him, relating to the insecure and feral Mia as his contemporary as opposed to the burden her mother views her as. There's a decency to Fassbender's performance in a very difficult and complicated role; Colin is unmistakably acting inappropriately in the film yet it's easy to see how both he and Mia could fall into this trap. Between his work here, in Basterds and this past winter's Hunger, Fassbender has become the break-out actor of 2009, a performer who seemingly can do anything well.


Arnold has enormous upside as a filmmaker and her work with actors is second to none but I do wish however she'd gravitate to someone else's material. This is now the second straight film from her that derails in the last act as she struggles to incorporate unwieldy tonal shifts and dramatic plot turns, when her gift is clearly for understated character drama. Still, Fish Tank is a film to keep your eye out for; it opens early next year. My grade: B
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Post by Admin Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:35 pm

http://boxoffice.com/reviews/2009/11/fish-tank.php

Fish Tank

by Steve Ramos
Print Article

posted November 17, 2009 2:12 PM

Andrea Arnold creates classic coming of age drama

British filmmaker Andrea Arnold's work history may be brief (three shorts and just two features counting Fish Tank) but the enthusiastic acclaim for her movies is impressive. Her talent for socio-realist drama, believable portrayals of the disadvantaged and an artist's eye when it comes to capturing their modest homes and impoverished lives has made the 48 year old director a true auteur. Arnold won the Cannes jury prize with her wonderful debut feature, Red Road, but Fish Tank, her follow-up, is the better film. A classic coming of age story about a teenage girl (newcomer Katie Jarvis) attempting to rise above her underprivileged and dysfunctional family life, Fish Tank will receive critical acclaim and strong word of mouth when IFC Films releases the drama in early 2010. More importantly, Fish Tank will exceed the modest domestic earnings of Arnold's debut feature and continue to build her U.S. fan base.

Mia (Jarvis) is a 15 year old teen living in a rundown Essex, England housing project with her mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing), and her younger sister, Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths). Mia's alcoholic mother is more interested in her new boyfriend (Hunger’s lean Michael Fassbender) than her two daughters. With her heart turned rock solid from loneliness and rage, Mia seeks escape by Hip Hop dancing in a vacant apartment to the music from her boom box. Mia wants a job dancing at a local club. She craves a better life but the many challenges that frequently accompany poverty stand in her way.

Shot near Arnold's hometown, Fish Tank is a working-class drama that's also a feminine response to the more male-centric dramas of British filmmaker Ken Loach. It's also a believable teen story reminiscent of classic youth movies like River's Edge and Elephant.

Katie Jarvis makes her acting debut in Fish Tank, (she was discovered by a casting agent arguing with her boyfriend on a train station platform) and she makes Mia a compelling, believable waif in a grey sweat suit and heavy eyeliner. Mia is front and center in almost all of the film's scenes with an emotional range extending from dark sadness to explosive anger. Jarvis, just 17 at the time of the film's shooting, makes every moment authentic. Granted, Mia is a character close to Jarvis' own life but her natural performance and ease with the camera earns her a shot at future film roles.

Cinematographer Robbie Ryan makes beautiful use of the bleak housing projects and surrounding industrial buildings in the stunning film. Yet, Ryan also emphasizes the ponds and scenic wetlands that surround the housing projects. These pockets of nature represent Mia's hope for a better tomorrow.

Shooting Fish Tank in a 1.33 aspect ratio turns out to be one of Arnold's best artistic decisions. The intimate visual scale of the film suits the working class characters and their modest lives perfectly. It's also worth noting that Arnold filmed Fish Tank in sequence, which helps explain the cinema verité spirit of the drama. Every scene is visually striking. More importantly, there's not a line of dialogue or performance that feels false.

IFC Films opens Fish Tank in early 2010 and it's an impressive addition to their release slate. While the coming of age genre is a familiar one, Fish Tank stands apart as a more challenging artfilm for a select following of specialty film buffs. With expected theatrical earnings far greater than her debut feature, Red Road, Arnold will continue to build name recognition with U.S. moviegoers and more audiences will discover Fish Tank via VOD and home video. Perhaps, by her third feature, audiences will recognize Arnold as a talent equal to Gus Van Sant or Ken Loach. She's certainly deserving of the comparisons.

Distributor: IFC Films
Cast: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing and Rebecca Griffiths
Director/Screenwriter: Andrea Arnold
Producers: Kees Kasandar
Genre: Drama
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 124 min.
Release date: January 15 NY
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Post by Admin Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:24 am

http://leblogdezazie.blogspot.com/2009/11/cinema-of-andrea-arnold.html

The main character of Fish Tank is, once again, a woman: Mia is a teenager living with her single mother and a younger sister in a dingy housing estate somewhere in the south of England. The only thing she really enjoys in life is to dance all alone on hip-hop tunes. At school she is a disaster and her relationship with the rest of the world is quite dramatic: no friends (her bad temper and bad manners don’t help) and no chances to be supported by her mum (kind of an alcoholic). Something changes with the arrival, in their apartment, of Connor, her mum’s new boyfriend (played by Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender, whose arrival would change any woman’s life on planet earth).

Mia, who spends her time defending herself against other people and the world outside, by meeting Connor (probably the first adult who seems genuinely interested in her as a human being), opens up to new feelings and new hopes. Things won’t turn very well with him, in the end, but the process has started, and a new phase of her life is spreading in front of her.

Supported by an outstanding cast (newcomer Katie Jarvis, found by Arnold while furiously fighting with her boyfriend on a station’s platform, English actress Kierston Wareing, already appreciated in It’s a Free World by Ken Loach, as Mia’s mum, and the above mentioned Michael Fassbender, by far the best actor of his generation), Fish Tank is a vibrant, emotional story.

There are at least a couple of perfect moments: every time Mia finds herself close to Connor and this simple contact produces in her a physical upsetting (like a crack in the fish tank she constantly feels trapped in) and the dancing scene between Mia, her mum and her (irresistible) little sister.

Maybe they’re desperate, maybe this world is a s*&^%$ place to live in, but everybody has the right to hope and to look for bliss.
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Post by Admin Fri Nov 20, 2009 6:19 pm

This has MAJOR SPOILERS

http://howardcasner.blogspot.com/2009/11/afi-potpourri-part-two.html

FISH TANK: One of those coming of age stories of kids rebelling against their parental figures and losing their virginity. But don’t let they stop you from seeing this sharp and moving tale of teenage angst by the writer/director Andrea Arnold who also made one of my favorite films of 2006, Red Road. The lead character is 15 year old Mia played with ferocious non-stop fury by newcomer Katie Jarvis. Katie is angry, but it’s unclear why; she’s just angry, almost existentially so. She doesn’t get along with her mother or her sister or her friends (actually, she has no friends). She finds herself physically attracted to her mother’s most recent lover Connor, played by a sexually charged Michael Fassbender whose first entrance is in jeans with such a low rise one keeps expecting them to fall to the floor (or does one hope they will fall to the floor). Her only dream is dancing and an appointment she has made to audition for a dance troupe. Her hopes are constantly dashed. She has hot sex with Fassbender, who then tells her they can’t do it again. He turns out to be married and has a child and breaks Mia’s mother’s heart when he ups and leaves with no reason given. And the dance audition turns out to be for a strip club. But that doesn’t stop her from taking control of her life and going off with a boy a bit closer to her own age; it may seem like a downer ending, but it’s really not. The story itself gets a little off center when Mia discovers Connor is married; the author doesn’t seem to know exactly what to do next and fills the plotline with one red herring after another. But other than that, a coming of age film that rises above the others.
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Post by Admin Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:46 pm

http://thefilmlair.blogspot.com/2009/11/getting-back-to-present.html

Fish Tank
Directed by Andrea Arnold
Starring: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing
Grade: B-

Teenager Mia is f&%$#& in more ways than one in this film, seemingly unable to escape a failed education and deprivated working-class existence, not to mention her cherry-plucking at the hands of a rugged Michael Fassbender. Her urban dance dreams are completely convincing, and valuable in terms of exposure and social aspiration, but the attempts to demonstrate how she's craving freedom (her quest to let loose a shackled horse in particular) are disappointingly blatant. Arnold also expects us to be grateful that a child survives in a random act of melodrama that feels very unnecessary.
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Post by Admin Tue Dec 01, 2009 12:31 am

http://notesfromthedark.blogspot.com/2009/11/fish-tank.html

Fish Tank
'Fish Tank' is a reminder of the days of gripping film drama that doesn't have to be fueled by action and spectacle. Andrea Arnold manages to tap human emotion and examine relationships so that she doesn't need anything else.

If cinema narrative is in a state of decline (which it may be this year more than any that have gone before) it is owing to the minimal attention given by filmmakers to characters and their relationships. This isn't only just true of American products such as 'Transformers' and 'Little Miss Sunshine' but plagues the British and Australian film industry and is creeping around the globe. The Australian industry is more interested in producing films that applies realism to terribly shallow characters (see: Somersault) or making carbon copies (see: The Magician, Chopper).

That is why it is refreshing to find a film like 'Fish Tank' that drives itself by the intimacies and tensions of a human relationship, much as Andrea Arnold achieved with 'Red Road' and her earlier short 'Wasp'. The key relationship of the film is between Mia, a 15-year-old girl pent up with energy and rage in the council flats of outer London, and Connor, the new boyfriend of Mia's mother. They are joined in their interactions by Mia's foul-mouthed sister, Mia's alcoholic and similarly rage-fueld mother, a boy closer to Mia's age, and the other girls in the council flats with whom Mia can't find friendship.

Characters may sound stereotypical of the 'working class' English film but it is something you never feel when watching the film. Andrea skethces all characters in great depth to the point where you find unexpected complexities in some of the minor supproting characters. Most admirably Arnold paints no one as a villian no matter what their actions. We sympathise with Connor despite the path that he is on and that draws a complex response when he undertakes some actions.

The relationship twists and turns so that even if you come in with assumptions, Arnold makes sure you never quite know where these two characters are taking each other. In doing so a simple conversation between them in a dark room, only lit by a television, can keep you on the edge of the seat. This undoubtedly owed as much to Arnold as it is to the excellent performances given by Katie Jarvis and Michael Fassbender. Two names you should hear a lot about come award season.

If Arnold hits the right notes most of the time, it must be said that there are one or two sequences where she hits the wrong note, but not so wrong to put one off the film. Simply finger slips rather mis steps. Consequently the film isn't quite as gripping as 'Red Road' and it feels like it should've been.

Andrea Arnold is only a young feature filmmaker with a lot skill. With the right kind of creative environment provided to her, one can't help but feel that 'Fish Tank' is a strong indication that her masterpiece(s) is/are just around the corner.
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Post by Admin Tue Dec 01, 2009 4:11 pm

http://libcom.org/blog/fish-tank-directed-andrea-arnold-01122009

Fish Tank, directed by Andrea Arnold
Submitted by Tom Jennings on Dec 1 2009 12:43

This powerful take on troubled teenage subverts social realist conventions as well as underclass clichés, according to Tom Jennings

Anti Social Behaviour Opera. Film review – Tom Jennings
Fish Tank’s 15 year-old Mia (Katie Jarvis) is angry at everyone and everything in her life on an Essex council estate. Her vicious invective constantly threatens to boil over: at home in a cramped high-rise with party-girl single mother Joanne (Kierston Wareing) and precocious little sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths); in the neighbourhood fighting running battles wth peers; and facing social services intervention following school exclusion. For respite she dances alone in an empty flat fuelled by cheap cider and hip-hop – honing b-girl routines being the only discipline she accepts. Then, restlessly roaming the area, she becomes fascinated by a horse tethered on waste ground and repeatedly fails to free it, nonetheless forming a tentative friendship with Billy (Harry Treadaway), one of its traveller family owners.

Meanwhile Joanne’s latest conquest Conor (Michael Fassbender) charms her daughters too (Tyler’s initial conclusion: “I like you: I’ll kill you last”), taking them on excursions and encouraging Mia’s vague dreams of a dancing career. His avuncular friendliness and interest touches her but also arouses sexual attraction – which one night, with mum dead-drunk upstairs, they consummate. He promptly bails out but Mia tracks him to a private estate in a nearby town, discovering he’s a married father. In a vengeful rage she entices the six-year old daughter away, narrowly avoiding a fatal accident in the estuary. Then, at a local nightclub’s dance audition she’s been practicing for, she walks out in disgust without performing. Finally, learning Billy’s horse has died, she accepts his offer of a trip to stay with relatives in Wales.

Both this and the director’s previous feature (Red Road*) won the coveted Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival – and her 2003 short film, Wasp (rehearsing some of Fish Tank’s themes), an Oscar. With meticulous casting and deft preparation of script and acting – including, here, from superb first-timers Jarvis and Griffiths supported by the equally excellent Wareing and Fassbender – Andrea Arnold distinctively integrates expressionistic and symbolist cinematography and visual design into narrative development, confounding expectations based on familiar generic formulae. Keeping the camera close to the protagonist’s point-of-view, her careful attention to conflicts and complexities of character and situation strenuously witholds backstories and resists sentimentality or easy resolutions. Insisting on the rich emotional and social texture of working-class life – even in the most unfavourable circumstances – the films invite but resist the prejudicial stereotyping typically traded by mainstream representations.

In this case the portrayal of dysfunctional family dynamics is thoroughly affecting and convincing (Joanne: “What the hell’s wrong with you?”; Mia: “You’re what’s wrong with me!”), with combined economic, social and cultural impoverishment apparently inexorably yielding hopeless disaster. But despite a habitually repellent interpersonality, the girl’s restless, questioning gaze consistently finds mystery, strangeness and beauty around the estate and out into the semi-rural Thames estuary sprawl’s marginal spaces and dilapidated vegetation. Biographically conditioned to default responses of frustrated resentment, she can’t yet interpret or usefully deploy this sensitivity and imaginative openness to passionate experience. But, for example, Billy’s incipient mobility counterpointing the imprisonment of the horse (which turns out to be a sick old mare), or the adrenaline rush when Conor, with her help, tickles a fish from the lake (later dumped on the floor for the dog’s dinner) tantalise Mia’s dawning determination to escape the prosaic constraints hitherto hemming her in – evoking more the glass walls of a fish tank rather than the glass ceilings which preoccupy more upwardly-mobile types.

This sophisticated rites of passage transcends time-honoured conservative caricatures of out-of-control delinquent chavs drowning noble aspirations to hardworking betterment – while never shying away from the potentially dire consequences of youth disaffection. And though Arnold’s titular metaphor invites superior perspectives on poverty traps and sink estates (most critics predictably following suit), the film itself prefers their inhabitants’ fractiously vibrant intimacy, wit, incipient intelligence and spirit – further showing how such vital human impulses can twist into malevolent or self-destructive acts when desperation narrows the limits of the foreseeable. Even a family this fragile nurtures as well as neglects – the home and kids are physically well cared-for, and emotional bonds run as deep as its extremes of profanity. But the refusal to relinquish desirous intensity – however inadequately articulated, developed and negotiated – or subsume it in respectable female role prescriptions, inevitably precipitates conflict among difficult daughters and immature mothers fixed in arrested adolescence.

These currents in the Fish Tank contextualise its masterstroke. Lower-class exuberance and earthy sexuality not only patchily trump tragic victimhood, but also echo through its sociohistorical soundtrack. Urban music from classic soul and lovers rock through to rap and grime animate its public culture over four decades of shifting working-class fortunes from the heydays of Ford Dagenham and Tilbury Docks to present prospects of service-industry McJobs. For Mia, the genuine resonance of Black music now offers only sleazy self-commodification, whereas she loses her virginity not to some cynical exploiter but a weak, well-meaning acquaintance – after Conor previews her routine like Simon Cowell appraising a hopeful. Pop Tart fame is anyway out of reach, since her dancing’s actually not very good, and her scepticism at the club mirrors an earlier dismissal of local lasses gyrating in sub-par streetcorner R&B video style and fashion – nailing its objectifying reduction while secretly ruefully envying its sensual call-and-responsiveness. Finally, Nas’ pivotal hip-hop album Illmatic (1995) is Mia’s leaving present for her mum as they dance together, showing and sharing love explicitly for the first time here. But the film’s gist transforms the signature refrain into “Life’s a bitch, and then you live”. Because these fish certainly aren’t kitchen-sinking, let alone tanking, and – whether applied to her films or to Arnold herself – you just know that this bitch will not be going quietly.

* see my review in ‘Closed Circuit Tunnel Vision’, Variant, 29 (2007). Fish Tank is released on DVD on 25th January.
Review first published in Freedom, Vol. 70, No. 22, November 2009.
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Post by Admin Fri Dec 04, 2009 5:07 pm

http://jonathanvelardi.blogspot.com/2009/12/wild-life-wild-things.html

Fish Tank, directed by Andrea Arnold, won the Jury Prize at Cannes Film festival this year steering it away from the stereotype of another 'council estate drama' movie. Following the life of fifteen-year-old Mia, played by debutant Katie Jarvis, you are immersed in the pride and rawness of a broken Britain in Essex fuelled by aspiration through the female eyes of a father-less family. Music and television play an important parallel throughout the film - Mia is an aspiring dancer and her little sister thrives on the frivolous parties of spoilt rich kids on the MTV hit show, My Super Sweet Sixteen. Also starring is Irish actor, Michael Fassbender who plays both a love interest for Mia's mother as well as a father figure for the family in the role of Connor. But Connor's own troubles come into play causing a furore of anger and genuine emotion that thwarts any ideas of hope that were built up before. The finale is remarkable yet honest and with this honesty brings the reality that no matter what your background, class or gender may be, we all live in fish tank trying to survive and wanting more from life.
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Post by Admin Sun Dec 06, 2009 1:25 am

http://watchmovie12.blogspot.com/2009/11/online-free-fish-tank-watch-english.html

Friday, November 27, 2009

Online free Fish Tank Watch English movie free trailer hollywood Fish Tank film Video,Review,Preview

Fish Tank:hollywood:Movie

Genre: Drama

Directors:Andrea Arnold
Writers:Andrea Arnold
Release Date:25 November 2009

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Harry Treadaway, Kierston Wareing, Katie Jarvis

Fish Tank:hollywood Movie Reviews

In this film, Andrea Arnold has demonstrated her mastery and fluency in the social-realist idiom, and simply makes it fizz with life. Having now watched Fish Tank a second time, I am more exhilarated than ever by Arnold's idealism, and in a movie marketplace where so much is vapidly cynical, this is a mistral of fresh air. Arnold finds a way into the fashionable notion of a "Broken Britain", but in place of the pundits' dismay and contempt, she offers tenderness and hope. If Ken Loach were ever somehow called on constitutionally to nominate a successor, it would surely have to be Arnold. She's got the grit; she has Loach's humanism and optimism and she has a happy knack of getting great performances out of her cast, particularly from Michael Fassbender, who proves that he's not just sex on a stick – he's complexity and vulnerability on a stick as well. Added to this, Arnold and her cinematographer, Robbie Ryan, conjure some glorious, almost Turner-ish images of the Essex countryside, with its racing summer skies.

At the centre of the story is newcomer Katie Jarvis, playing Mia, a tricky, lairy 15-year-old in trouble with the social services for breaking a girl's nose after a contretemps in one of the windswept municipal canyons lying between tower blocks. She has inherited from her mum, played by Kierston Wareing, a stroppy insecurity and a nascent fondness for the booze. The family dog is actually called Tennent's. Mia has a feisty younger sister, Tyler – a scene-stealer of a performance from Rebecca Griffiths – who is always winding Mia up with shrill threats to "tell on her". There is no dad in the picture. Mia has just one interest in life: urban dance, and she isn't too bad, but the moves she practises are moody, introverted and subdued, rather like the dancer herself.
Their torpid lives are disrupted when Mia's mother miraculously gets a new boyfriend, Connor: and Fassbender gives his best performance yet. Connor is funny, sexy, confident and utterly relaxed where everyone else appears clenched with resentment. Noticeably articulate, Connor appears to come from a marginally more middle-class world and he is also, tellingly, a breadwinner. Mia rifles through his wallet while he's upstairs with her mum and instead of immediately nicking the cash, she gazes fascinated at his payslips: a man who actually works for a living. How many of those has she ever met?

Without consciously realising it, Mia is hoping that Connor could be a father-figure, and both sisters are secretly thrilled when he takes them all out for a drive in the country, and shows them how he can catch a fish with his bare hands. While her mother and sister cringe on the riverbank, Mia wades out into the cold, slimy water to help him and Tyler squeaks: "Is it minging?"

No, it is not minging. It is sensual and exciting, an exotic experience such as Mia has never known. And it marks the decisive point at which Connor and Mia's relationship drifts past being that of a quasi-father and daughter. Connor even takes an interest in her dancing, and casually lends her his expensive camcorder to tape an audition for a local competition, trusting that he will get it back. "You dance like a black," he tells her, with studied, flirtatious insolence. "I mean it as a compliment."

Mia has an enormous, poignant capacity for love, but she has never received any, certainly not from a damaged mother, whose one moment of intimacy with her daughter comes when she ferociously tells Mia that she was thinking of having her aborted. So she has no idea how to express or manage love and it is her muddled, suspicious longing for the safety and comfort of a father's care that makes the situation so explosive. As for Connor, it is far from clear how much baggage he has: he moves in to Mia's mum's flat because he says his own mother has thrown him out and often has to take calls from his "mum", but what is really going on? It becomes all too clear that if Mia has her own issues about family, then so does Connor – whose secrets are shabbier and more poisonous than either Mia or her mother could have realised.

The situation heralds an unwatchably tense finale as Mia's adoration turns into anger and then a determination to survive, to outgrow her surroundings, and to forgive. Arnold shows us that what makes the relationship between Mia and Connor so transgressive is not their obvious sexual attraction but their quite genuine, if thwarted and delusional longing to be father and daughter.

Jarvis has given a wonderfully honest and open performance to be compared with David Bradley in Kes, or Émilie Dequenne in the Dardenne brothers' Rosetta. Her relationship with Fassbender is what gives the film its beating heart.
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Post by Admin Sun Dec 06, 2009 1:34 am

http://inuitbikini.blogspot.com/2009/11/fish-tank.html

Thursday, November 26, 2009
"Fish Tank"
This was a film from yer one who made that Red Road film comes this tale of skanky council estate folk. The central performance is exceptional, especially considering that the actor had never been in anything before and was cast after a casting scout saw her arguing with her boyfriend in a train station.

It's hard to say too much about this without making it sound grim and depressing, which it ultimately is not (for all that it has a few nooooo-my-eyes scenes), so I will leave it at that and recommend it to everyone. But there are lots of great performances, from Katie Jarvis in the main role, someone else as her skanky mother, and Michael Fassbender as her mother's new boyfriend, to all the incidental actors. There is a lot of really lame music in the film, but this is a comment on how being working class sucks.
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Post by Admin Wed Dec 09, 2009 3:31 am

http://lindamargarita.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/fishtank/

“You need sorting out, you do.”
27 11 2009

Fish Tank

Directed By: Andrea Arnold [2009]

The life of a teenager is a confusing and complicated thing. Add a promiscuous mother and a pestering younger sister, and everything looks to be downhill. That is the case with Mia, a teenage girl living in the U.K. with the dream to be a dancer. The only thing holding her back is her pride and temper. Director Andrea Arnold picked a newcomer off the streets, Kate Jarvis, to be Mia and Jarvis knocks it out of the ballpark. Jarvis holds the grittiness of Mia throughout the entire film, making her to be a realistic teenager in not-that-far-fetched situations.

As Mia’s mom’s boyfriend, the always great Michael Fassbender steps in as Connor, a mysterious guy that takes a liking to Mia, much to her mother’s dismay. Mia grows emotionally and physically attracted to him as well, adding fuel to the fire that is Mia and her mom’s disastrous relationship. Mia is envious of the sexual relationship Connor and her mom share and decides to rebel by flirting with a street boy Billy (Harry Treadaway). She even goes as far to show up at Connor’s work with Billy in tow. It isn’t long before Mia and Connor sleep together and Connor runs away in guilt. This sends Mia in hysterics until she finds out Connor’s secret. Her fury backfires and her affections for Connor go out the window. The only thing left is her love of dance, which she eventually pursues.

Director Andrea Arnold took a plot that could be frowned upon into a well written story with capable actors creating real characters. It’s a flawed movie, with scenes that seem unnecessary, but the acting makes up for most of it. B-

Noms/Wins [11-26-09]

Best Picture

Best Actress- Katie Jarvis

Best Supporting Actor- Michael Fassbender

Best Original Screenplay
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