The things they say...Fish Tank

http://collectandcritique.blogspot.com/2010/01/fish-tank-andrea-arnold-2009-910.html

Her mother brings home a new boyfriend Connor, seductively played by Michael Fassbender

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2010/01/fish-tank.html

A new man (Michael Fassbender, as great here as he is in Hunger and Inglourious Basterds, and the best-known cast member) comes into the mother's life, and, rather dangerously, into Mia's.

There's the canny, slightly cheeky way this woman director, making a film centered on female characters, makes Fassbender the movie's lust object (at least for a little while); his character, Connor, slinks around Mia and her mom's apartment shirtless, his jeans barely held up around his jutting hips. Even more interestingly, Arnold makes Connor a bit more sophisticated than anyone else in the picture. He's got good taste in music, particularly what the Brits call Northern Soul; Bobby Womack's cover of "California Dreamin' " becomes a ruefully ironic leitmotif in the film. "You cannot call Bobby Womack 'weird s$#!,'" he affectionately scolds Mia's mother. In a sense, he's a bit of an audience surrogate, which status gets dicey as his character turns more problematic.

Saw this last year at the Chicago Film Fest, it's worth it for Fassbender alone. Most exciting actor in movies right now.

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

The actor in the lead, Michael Fassbender, was equally if not more amazing in his role. He was also the best thing (in my opinion) in Inglorious Basterds, as the language expert helping the Americans negotiate in a German bar (the best scene in that movie).

http://movieswithabe.com/2010/01/movie-with-abe-fish-tank.html

Also excellent in the film is Michael Fassbender, last seen ordering drei glaser in “Inglourious Basterds,” as Joanne’s new boyfriend who develops a close relationship with Mia. He’s been around for longer than Jarvis, but keeping an eye on him in the future would be just as beneficial.

http://mskatej.livejournal.com/331548.html

Life for Mia becomes a lot more interesting with the arrival of Connor (played by the utterly delicious and talented Michael Fassbender)

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

and Michael Fassbender as her mother's boyfriend, Conner, is extremely attractive and complicated.

http://chiaroscurocoalition.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/too-young-an-education-and-fish-tank/

Fassbender is fantastic here, and combined with his recent turns in Steve McQueen’s Hunger and Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, he’s certainly the acting find of 2009. Connor is in equal measure fatherly, understanding, and lecherous. His drunken regret makes the character, if not sympathetic (he certainly is not that), then at least understandable.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/stormy-weather/Content?oid=1577018

Irish-bred, German-native actor Fassbender turns in a crafty piece of work as Connor, the moonlighting lover.

http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=film&article=717

Arnold kept her crack ensemble in the dark about which Freudian taboos they were aiming to shatter by parceling out each day's script pages on a need-to-know basis. This allows newbie Jarvis to wander in way over her head in some Lolita vs. The Postman Always Rings Twice subtext with the thinking-man's beefcake Fassbender. The Killarney-born hunk is so adroit at sneaking up on us with his "nice guy" seduction mojo that we can suspend our judgment about the teen girl/grown man train-wreck in the offing.

In the process she gives us yet another smoldering hunk: Fassbender infuses the cliches surrounding men behaving truly horribly with a slow-smoldering sensuality and emotional intelligence. It's worth the price of admission to catch Connor's body language realizing that he has truly crossed a line and must get out of Dodge.

http://www.weekinrewind.com/2010/01/fish-tank-movie-review-2010.html

Katie Jarvis carries the entire film, though. It's her first film role (ever, not just in a major film or anything--she was literally found by the producers in a train station and she was hired), but she does an extraordinary job and she captures the attitude and spirit of someone of Mia's age and standing very well. She's complemented fairly well by Michael Fassbender, who has that easy charm and coolness that made him so likable in his brief but crucial role in "Basterds" and to a lesser extent "300." The two have incredible chemistry, which makes their budding and highly inappropriate relationship feel a lot more real.

http://www.patriotledger.com/entertainment/x402456638/SNEAK-PREVIEW-Movies-opening-this-week

Michael Fassbender, the hot new Irish actor who dazzled in “Hunger” and “Inglourious Basterds,” costars.

http://www.dailycal.org/article/107986/_fish_dives_into_sexuality_and_gender_politics

Fassbender's Connor is a far departure from his magisterial turn as Bobby Sands in 2008's "Hunger" in a good way: The Irish actor's balance of beguiling honesty and manipulative charm adds to the film's growing sense of dread.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2010-01-29-fishtank29_ST_N.htm

Along comes her mother's new boyfriend Connor (a superb Michael Fassbender)

http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/movies/AP/story/1451542.html

In "Fish Tank," trouble comes in the form of Joanne's new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender), all lean muscles and laughter.

Fassbender, whom you might know from his very funny turn as an undercover agent who's done in by a bad drink order in "Inglourious Basterds'" tavern scene, is excellent walking that tight-wire of dark possibilities.

http://www.sfstation.com/fish-tank-a26401

For her cast, Arnold didn’t have to think twice about casting Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, Hunger), but she took an obvious risk with Jarvis, a newcomer to film. As Mia, Jarvis gives a rough-edged, but no less authentic, performance than Fassbenders’ role as the late IRA activist Bobby Sands in Hunger.

http://www.patriotledger.com/entertainment/x690801665/VIDEO-MOVIE-REVIEW-Fish-Tank-3-stars

Whether head butting an acquaintance on the playground or expressing compassion for an abused, malnourished horse, Jarvis holds you in her grip, as she carefully tiptoes around a host of cavernous clichés, not the least of which being her sexual awakening at the hands of her mother’s hunky boyfriend, Connor.

He’s played by the fabulous Michael Fassbender from “Inglourious Basterds,” and there’s no end to the heat he generates with Jarvis in serving both as a gentle father figure and dirty old man.

There’s never any doubt where their rather creepy relationship is headed, but Jarvis and Fassbender seldom fail to surprise you.

http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2010/01/29/there_is_plenty_of_talent_on_display_in_fish_tank/

When Joanne brings the rangy, sexy Connor (Michael Fassbender) home from the pub one night, his maleness fills a void the three women didn’t even know was there.

(Fassbender, last seen trying to hold that biergarten scene together in “Inglourious Basterds,’’ knows he can dominate the frame by doing very little; he holds back, graciously giving Jarvis full freedom of movement.)

http://www.sf360.org/features/fish-tank-finds-truth

The other major performance is by Irish-born professional thesp Fassbender, who made a visceral impression as imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands as Hunger. (Also in 2008, he starred in a lesser-seen personal favorite, the harrowing “hoodie horror” film Eden Lake).

http://movienewsandviews.blogspot.com/2010/01/fish-tank-and-girl-on-train.html

All of the acting is spot on.

And Fassbender is one of the best new actors working today.

http://filmdramas.suite101.com/article.cfm/uk-film-review-fish-tank

Everything changes when Connor arrives. Fassbender, in another great metamorphosis, oozes charisma and Mia is immediately attracted to him.

http://lavraki.com/fish-tank/

Irish-raised Michael Fassbender turns in another incredible performance (right on the heels of Hunger and Inglourious Basterds), once again proving that he’s the master of accents. He fills Connor with the right amount of charm, slyness and just a hint of nearly intangible off-ness.

http://armchairaudience.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post.html

This one follows a fifteen-year-old named Mia who lives in a housing project in Essex, England. She develops a crush on her mother's dangerous new boyfriend, played by the masterful Michael Fassbender. His scenes with Mia, played by non-actor Katey Jarvis (who was amazing), are the best in the film, but the rest is good as well.

http://www.pacificsun.com/news/show_story.php?id=1496

Irish-born Michael Fassbender is sure to get a boost in the matinee idol sweepstakes.

http://movies.sophonax.net/?p=104

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) - In less than two years, Michael Fassbender has gone from completely unknown to one of the best actors working today. He fully threw his body and spirit into “Hunger” to convey intensity that is both evidently psychotic but still somewhat appealing, which he followed up with a 180-degree flip performance as a spy overflowing with movie star charm in “Inglourious Basterds”. His work in “Fish Tank” is as good as those two performances if not better - as the boyfriend of the protagonist’s mother, Fassbender brilliantly plays a man who initially seems to be a near-father-figure type but always has a dark, unpleasant undercurrent running below his overtly expressed emotions. There’s a lot more to talk about in the film - newcomer Katie Jarvis’ painfully realistic performance as the tormented adolescent lead and Arnold’s method of adding expressionist flashes to the otherwise mundanely realistic aesthetic (particularly notable is that scene where Fassbender’s character carries the pretending-to-be-asleep protagonist to bed), but Fassbender’s turn is what has really stuck in my head regarding this movie. It’s basically the performance Peter Saarsgard should have given in “An Education”. Really, as a depiction of troubled adolescence and gradual awakenings, this whole movie is what “An Education” should have been.

http://www.centredaily.com/entertainment/movies/story/1759367.html

Fassbender, whom you might know from his very funny turn as an undercover agent who's done in by a bad drink order in "Inglourious Basterds'" tavern scene, is excellent walking that tight-wire of dark possibilities.