The things they say...Fish Tank

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A412550

Jarvis is an first-time actor; she handles her character's limited emotional palette well enough, but it's the veterans Wareing and Fassbender who make Fish Tank succeed as a sure-footed snapshot of an adolescent girl's unpromising life.

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A412510

It's the two traditionally trained performers in the emotional and sexual triangle who make Fish Tank succeed as a sure-footed snapshot of an adolescent girl's unpromising life. Fassbender is more known for his work in artificial movie realms (Inglourious Basterds; 300), but here he shows off his comfort with the realist tradition (he also recently starred as an Irish Republican Army martyr in Steve McQueen's Hunger). His Connor manages to be charming, sexual, sensitive and manly before his grievous flaws are exposed.

http://blogs.examiner.co.uk/moviesfilmscinema/2010/03/dvd-review-of-bafta-2010s-outs.html

And if Connor hadn't been cast correctly, he could have come across as a creep, but the always dependable Michael Fassbender manages to invest all his usual charm and charisma. Thanks to Fassbender, we simultaneously believe Connor's attraction to and his fatherly treatment of Mia. So too the rare glints of vulnerability and anger - what initially seems like the perfect man to Mia step-by-step reveals his flaws. This is, like any man, someone with faults, and it's Fassbender's finest performance yet.

http://thirdcoastdigest.com/2010/03/mff-winter-review-fish-tank/

Michael Fassbender as Connor, the boyfriend, is equally good at walking the line between extremes. In his case, he veers between fatherly affection and sexually-charged flirting with a suddenness that is unnerving.

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/fish-tank

Fassbender is outstanding in “Fish Tank.” He manages to combine aspects of both a father figure and a sexual predator in his character flawlessly and believably. It’s difficult to imagine a single person executing such opposite aspects in a way that's not overdone. His portrayal of Connor adds just the right amount of menace to the story.

http://getafilm.blogspot.com/2010/03/getafilm-gallimaufry-prophet-fish-tank.html

Two things I know now after seeing Fish Tank: 1. I must see Red Road; and 2.) It's confirmed - Michael Fassbender is now a must-see, on-the-verge-of-a-breakout actor. Much as I'm completely uninterested in this summer's Jonah Hex, if anyone can make it watchable it will be him.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/article.aspx?subjectid=281&articleid=20100402_281_D3_InFish480181

She is matched here by the dynamic Michael Fassbender, playing her caring-but-skanky mother's new boyfriend, the only adult to take an interest in Mia, but who also awakens her burgeoning sexuality. The star of "Hunger" (playing hunger striker Bobby Sands), who was also memorable in a small role in "Inglourious Basterds," balances compassion and cradle-robbing creepiness impressively.

http://strippedcinema.com/2010/03/29/fish-tank-teaches-us-to-keep-our-heads-above-water-2/

We are introduced to Connor at the beginning of the film, in all his shirtless glory. The past year has been a year for matured performances apparently, and Michael Fassbender is no exception to this. He plays Connor with such grace and ease we have no idea whether to love him or hate him.

http://host.madison.com/entertainment/movies/reviews/article_27277605-2490-5215-96b2-5d46e5e3187c.html

Then her mother brings home a new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender of “Inglourious Basterds”). He’s clean-cut and handsome, but most importantly, he brings an element into Mia’s life that’s been absent until now; kindness. When he tenderly dresses a cut on her foot, or speaks to her with warmth, it’s like he’s arrived from another planet.

Fassbender makes Connor both an appealing and mysterious figure whose real motives lay hidden even to himself. And Jarvis is fiercely powerful as the combative, wounded Mia; it’s amazing that she’s not a professional actress, but was discovered by casting agents on the streets of London.

http://johnryansfilms.blogspot.com/2010/04/fish-tank.html

But I did get to come away from this movie loving Michael Fassbender. His performance in 2008's Hunger, and I was really hoping it was not a fluke. I'm ecstatic to say he is clearly an actor capable of broad range.

http://www.jjmurphyfilm.com/blog/?p=744

Michael Fassbender does a masterful job of balancing the inherent contradictions of Connor’s character by creating just enough ambiguity to keep viewers off-balance.

http://www.salient.org.nz/arts/film/fish-tank

Michael Fassbender plays opposite her as her mother’s new boyfriend, the charming, cultured Connor. Like Jarvis, Fassbender feels authentic, nailing his character and sucking us in with his agreeable nature. The two primarily excel, however, in the way they betray their characters’ hidden weaknesses, allowing us surreptitious glimpses of them as they slowly grow out of their pigeonholes. In a world where hostility is the status quo and life is as repulsive as it is depressing, these characters embody Fish Tank’s Glaswegian gloom, the aspiring escapee and the symbol of her hope.

http://babetteflix.blogspot.com/2010/04/fish-tank-2009.html

Co-star Michael Fassbender has an Irish accent, but is really half Irish and half German, and has used both languages in his film work (Eden Lake and Hunger (both 2008) won a bunch of awards and are on my to-see list, and he was in Inglourious Basterds, playing a Brit who goes undercover as a German). Fassbender's Connor has many layers;

http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/yb/143837223

One of the film's great strengths is that Fassbender exudes a kind of easy charm that causes you to backtrack on his possible intentions even as he seems to cross lines.

http://reversedirection.john-seven.com/?p=5714

One of the film’s great strengths is that Fassbender exudes a kind of easy charm that causes you to backtrack on his possible intentions even as he seems to cross lines.

http://www.thetranscript.com/northberkshirenews/ci_14895783?source=rss

One of the film’s great strengths is that Fassbender exudes a kind of easy charm that causes you to backtrack on his possible intentions even as he seems to cross lines.

http://www.hauntedflowerreviews.com/Haunted_Flower_Reviews/Reviews/Entries/2010/4/11_Fish_Tank.html

The most enjoyable (if there is something to enjoy here) part of the movie was Michael Fassbender as Connor. Obviously he is an attractive man shirtless but he has an effortless charm and walks the line perfectly between responsible adult and possible lech for a minor. You can't tell what side he is leaning towards because all of his actions and remarks can be seen in both lights and it really keeps you guessing throughout.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com%2FDark%2Bchocolate%2Bhelpful%2Btreating%2Bcirrhosis%2BStudy%2F2910443%2Fstory.html&ei=o6_PS5W0GormswOM4ODMBg&usg=AFQjCNHAWzL7pvk64jYdtITsAlVXXPV3KQ&sig2=8crhSCrxn5Eb8JOYvDZtvg

Connor is played by Michael Fassbender, who deserves a paragraph, not to say a movie, of his own. From his searing portrayal of Bobby Sands in Hunger to the easy command he showed as the Nazi impersonator with a bad accent in ...

http://thefilmivejustseen.blogspot.com/2010/05/fish-tank.html

Michael Fassbender is also extremely effective as Connor, bringing real depth to a character who has so much potential for good right up to the moment when he succumbs to his baser instincts.

http://film-guff.blogspot.com/2010/06/tale-of-two-fishies-part-1.html

Michael Fassbender yet again proves what a phenomenal actor he is, channelling such a charming malevolence throughout the film until he makes his disgraced escape.

http://sergioleoneifr.blogspot.com/2010/06/not-quite-lost-art-of-double-bill.html

This is a movie that is an unknown quantity to me, but it come s highly recommended, and truly anything with Michael Fassbender in it should be worth a look.

http://blog.quickflix.com.au/2010/09/all-young-dudettes-fish-tank-review.html

Michael Fassbender meanwhile is building an intriguing career for himself, playing characters that make decisions you or I never would, but still convincing us that he understands why he does them.

http://mediabarnsleycollege.blogspot.com/2010/09/fish-tank.html

Their torpid lives are disrupted when Mia's mother miraculously gets a new boyfriend, Connor: and Fassbender gives his best performance yet

http://feitelogram.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/because-i-had-nothing-to-do-on-a-sunday-afternoon-and-felt-guilty-that-it-was-already-2011/

While one might be put off at first by Mia’s fist-fighting hip-hop dancing ways, her fighting instinct is quickly realized as survival impulse, when you find out that her life is one where the closest thing to familial love is familial silence and there is no one in existence to watch her back. When “mum” brings home a boyfriend (Michael Fassbender, quickly becoming one of our finest actors),

http://thenumberoftheblog.com/2011/01/04/focus-on-film-2010-a-retrospective-part-1/

10. Fish Tank: Fish Tank is an Independent British film that showcases some very promising young talent as well as another brilliant performance from Michael Fassbender.

http://cinefilestv.blogspot.com/2011/01/fish-tank-2010.html

Michael Fassbender other then being a great actor must have the best agent in the world, Good natural instincts when it comes to material or is very lucky because whenever I see him in a film it is phenomenal like HUNGER and INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. Here he is mesmerizing as a character who is charismatic and even when we see his bad side we can’t fully hate.