Fish Tank DVD reviews

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Fish Tank: The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)
Criterion // Unrated // February 22, 2011 // Region A

Review by Brian Orndorf | posted February 20, 2011

THE FILM

A fantastic symphony of characters making regrettable decisions, "Fish Tank" is a depiction of innocence lost, set against a common backdrop of working-class England, with its claustrophobic habitats and perpetual ambiance of hostility. It's a dynamite film, but I was caught watching with eyes-through-fingers a few times, fearful moments of exquisite tension would devolve into a Catherine Breillat-style shock-value spectacle. Thankfully, director Andrea Arnold has better taste, making her feature not a depressive cage, but a maze of behavioral patterns and damage with some form of light at the end of the tunnel.

15-year-old Mia (Katie Jarvis) is a lost girl struggling with her negligent mother Joanne (Kierston Wareing), a filthy home, and the images of hip-hop dancing salvation force fed to her through television. Into the family comes Connor (Michael Fassbender, "Inglourious Basterds"), Joanne's latest fling, who takes a shine to Mia and her prickly disposition. Mia, curious about the attention, becomes infatuated with Connor, unsure how to process her newfound sexual response. Though she stumbles upon a friend in age-appropriate Billy (Harry Treadaway), Mia finds Connor's advances more persuasive, putting her in yet another precarious situation while the rest of her life continues to slip out of control.

Though not quite as feral as the 1999 Palme d'Or winner "Rosetta," "Fish Tank" submits a similar sort of impetuous, teenaged, hand-held screen energy, tracking an unpredictable character as she maneuvers through a series of obstacles while trapped in an impossible economic situation. The setting here is England and its lost generation: a track-suited teen nation raised on lousy American hip-hop, unobtainable displays of extravagance found on television, and brimming with chipped-tooth discontent brought on by easily attained alcohol and an absence of parental interest. We've been here before, but the general hold of sympathetic study in Arnold's direction is riveting, taking the viewer into areas of conduct that are uncomfortable to watch, yet vital to the overall understanding of Mia and her well-oiled rage.

"Fish Tank" is a generally silent, semi-verite journey that follows Mia as she stomps around her community, put off by her peers as she pieces together a dream for a better life. Her golden ticket out of town is dance, which she practices inside an abandoned apartment, worried to reveal her passion for fear it will be taken away. She picks fights with the locals girls, and grows fixated on a horse chained in Billy's yard -- a symbolic figure of forecast that Mia takes to heart. She's a complicated girl with wrath as her one and only exterior speed, yet Connor brings something out of her that's rarely allowed the light of day: vulnerability. However, he's a predator of unknown origins, with Arnold plucking a devastating string of tension pulled taught between them; it's an unnerving sexual energy the picture plays superbly without feeling the need to be lascivious about it. It's a fresh sensation of curiosity and urge handed to a bewildered Mia, whose only role model appears to be Joanne, a boozy, easy blonde who looks roughly 10 years older than her daughter.

THE BLU-RAY

Visual:

The clarity on the "Fish Tank" BD is startling, with the AVC encoded image (1.33:1 aspect ratio) presentation delivering an exceptionally evocative viewing event. Retaining the film's low-budget grit, the disc provides natural colors, punching through on costumes and street life -- greens and yellows boost the film's winning use of daylight, with hues crisply separated and deployed. Detail is outstanding, with the film's locations viewed in full (blessed with incredible earthy textures and urban chaos), while faces retain their performance subtlety and emotional purity (not to mention adolescent growing pains). Shadow detail is strong throughout, pulling require visual information out of low-light encounters, while successfully surveying hair and costume details.

Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD sound mix doesn't challenge the average home theater with a wide range of auditory business, instead providing the dramatic essentials with precise movements and crisp separation. Soundtrack cuts make a dimensional impression, with throbbing bass and beats encouraging a low-end response, while the music feels out the surround channels comfortably. Dialogue exchanges are precise and rich, keeping frontal and clear. Atmospherics are encouraging, with the film's harsh weather elements feeding into some directional activity, while interiors retain a pleasing echo. Much like the visual experience, the sonic side of "Fish Tank" brings about maximum mood and purpose.

Subtitles:

English subtitles are offered.

Extras:

"Kierston Wareing" (14:19) sits down with the actress to discuss her role in the film, along with an extensive chat about character motivation (an illuminating topic). With her history working for Ken Loach, Wareing is able to communicate her thespian approach and experience collaborating with Arnold.

"Michael Fassbender" (26:22) is an audio interview between curator David Schwartz and the actor, recorded in 2010. Again discussing approach and on-set experience, the chat heads into a Q&A experience where Fassbender handles himself well with some pretty random queries.

"Audition Footage" (9:42) collects dance footage from the aspiring Mias, who work their convincing electric boogaloo for the camera.

"Milk" (1988, 10:30), "Dog" (2001, 10:16), and "Wasp" (2003, 25:46) are three short films from Andrea Arnold containing images and themes of family, adolescence, and poverty that would eventually funnel into "Fish Tank." "Wasp" even nabbed her an Academy Award.

"Stills Gallery" collects 53 pictures taken during the film shoot.

And a Theatrical Trailer is included.

FINAL THOUGHTS

"Fish Tank" visits bleak psychological spaces, and while it's a good 15 minutes too long, the lasting effect of the film is felt vividly through Jarvis's raw performance. She's a caustically metered, wide-eyed observer that acts as the ideal glue for Arnold as the director assembles the chilling pieces of this shattered household together. It's a pungent display of teenage life, but "Fish Tank" achieves sublime emotional candor, gripping tightly with an electric cinematic hold. It makes the unthinkable captivating.

http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2011/02/the_ohyes_dvd_of_the_week_fish.html

Mon Feb 21 11, 11:46PM
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the oh-yes! DVD of the week: ‘Fish Tank’: Criterion Collection

If you haven’t seen Fish Tank, one of the best films of 2010 (my review is here), now you have no excuse: there’s a new Criterion Collection edition just out, so it’s not going to get any better than this. British filmmaker Andrea Arnold turns her perceptive eye on female adolescence, a topic usually treated on film with nothing more than flippancy, when it’s treated at all. Here, though, newcomer Katie Jarvis burns with impotent rage as Mia, a poor English 15-year-old desperate for some focus to her life: here are truths of that borderland between childhood and adulthood like we rarely see them... and truths about burgeoning womanhood many people don’t want to acknowledge in real life, never mind onscreen, courtesy of Mia’s encounters with her mother’s new boyfriend, played by Michael Fassbender with a riveting sleaziness. Don’t miss this movie.

http://www.hometheaterloft.com/?p=4950

Fish Tank [Blu-ray Review]

by Pirate on Feb.21, 2011, under Reviews


Criterion / Blu-ray
2009 / Not Rated / 122min
1080p Standard 1.33:1
English DTS-HD MA 5.1

Like a lot of lower-class kids, 15-year-old Mia (Katie Jarvis) is burdened with acute precognition. To view her future, all she needs to do is peer out the window of her small Essex apartment, or count the bottles surrounding her young, passed-out mother (Kierston Wareing). These visions have made Mia into a spitfire, raging against the boundaries of her confinement. She rows with her younger sister, sprays venom at her mother and scraps with the other housing project teenagers. But when the noise gets to be too much, Mia breaks into an empty apartment, sets up two small speakers, and dances. As she struts, twirls and breaks, at least for a moment, she exorcises her demons and transcends the fish tank.

The bleak gets a hint of color when Mia’s mother brings home a new boyfriend. Connor (Michael Fassbender), a handsome and roguishly charming Irishman, is the first person in a long time to be kind to Mia. He catches her dancing one morning and becomes her only supporter. He even lends her his small camcorder so she can make a demo reel for local dance scouts. In one elegantly executed scene, Conner carries a half-asleep Mia to her bed. As he climbs the stairs and walks the hall to her room, Mia lays her head on his chest and times her heartbeat to his breathing. There’s a dangerous attraction between the two—an attraction that will become more and more damaging as the film builds.

Writer/director Andrea Arnold tells Fish Tank entirely from Mia’s point of view. She uses Mia’s perception to translate the other characters’ actions and motivations, and thus nothing is made explicit. This leaves considerable room for interpretation and forces rather inconvenient feelings of empathy towards the film’s broken and irresponsible adults.

The film is certainly a coming-of-age story, but it has more in common with films like 8-Mile and Hustle & Flow, wherein characters plot their escape by means of urban artistic expression. Arnold makes a point of highlighting the television images viewed in Mia’s house, specifically those that represent greener pastures. For her mother, it’s Better Homes-type programming, where people spend extravagant amounts of money on custom bed frames and billion-thread count sheets. For Mia, it’s hip-hop videos. She watches with the intensity of a death row prisoner staring down the last-minute appeals phone.

Fish Tank is a remarkably accomplished work, especially considering that it’s only Arnold’s second feature. Even though the film is shot against mostly drab and lonely locations, Arnold and cinematographer Robbie Ryan produce a great deal of beautiful and perfectly observed images. I was especially pleased with Arnold’s use of the standard (1.33:1) aspect ratio, which creates an appropriately confined composition for the actors to writhe about in.

At this point in their impressive careers, we should all be familiar with Michael Fassbender (who’s about to play Magneto in the next X-Men film!) and Kierston Wareing. (If not, go rent Steve McQueen’s Hunger and Ken Loach’s It’s a Free World….) Fassbender and Wareing are both fine actors, but this film belongs to Katie Jarvis, who makes one hell of a debut. She absolutely embodies Mia’s physical and psychological struggle. Arnold apparently discovered Jarvis in a similar Essex housing project, so the performance we see on screen may, in fact, be a cathartic release from one of the few who made it out.

Fish Tank comes to Blu-ray in its original standard aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The transfer utilizes the AVC codec, takes up 32GB of space on the disc, and has a video bitrate of 29.99Mbps.

Criterion’s transfer is exceptionally strong. The 35mm elements are in perfect shape. Detail is superb and colors are absolutely perfect. Black levels are rock solid, with excellent shadow delineation. There may have been some minor banding, but other than that the transfer is free of digital annoyances. The film’s slight grain structure has been left lovingly intact. And, unlike with the DVD, the 1.33:1 image has not been windowboxed.

View Bitrate

Fish Tank is presented here in a 24-bit English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track at 2512Kbps.

Unfortunately, I am currently in-between surround sound systems, so I am unable to comment on the full experience (I’m currently listening in two-channel). I will try to revisit the audio when everything is up and running again. I have no doubt, however, that Criterion has provided a stellar mix.

Kierston Wareing Interview (14min):
This exclusive interview features Wareing discussing her role in the film, as well as her history in Essex.

Michael Fassbender Interview (26min):
In this insightful audio feature, Michael Fassbender is interviewed by David Schwartz, curator of the Museum of the Moving Image.

Audition Footage (10min):
This is a really cool feature that gives us a look at dance routines from some of girls auditioned for the role of Mia.

Short Films (45min):
All three of Andrea Arnold’s powerful short films are presented here: Milk (1989), Dog (2001) and Wasp (2003).

Stills Gallery:
A selections of candid photographs from the set of the film.

Trailer:
The film’s theatrical trailer, presented in HD.

The disc comes housed in Criterion’s standard clear Blu-ray case. Included is a 16-page booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ian Christie.

[Click images for full resolution captures]

Reviewed by: Pirate
Review Date: February 21st, 2010
Release Date: February 22nd, 2010

http://www.avforums.com/movies/Fish-Tank--Criterion-Collection-review_10446/movie.html

Fish Tank - Criterion Collection Review

Blu-ray review written by Cas Harlow, published 21st February 2011

Supplied for review by Axel Music

It’s impossible to discuss British social-realist movies without looking to the works of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. Loach is probably best remembered for Kes, where Leigh has done Secrets & Lies and Naked. However this sub-genre of so-called “kitchen-sink” realism, which dissects often working class (or under-class) individuals in bleak scenarios, has had some other entries of interest over the years – from Nil by Mouth to Kidulthood, the latter of which is one of my favourite examples of contemporary social realism, a snapshot of urban teen life on a London Council Estate, complete with almost-incomprehensible f-bomb-laden dialogue, underage promiscuity, teenage pregnancy, drug taking and dealing, and petty crime. In fact Council Estates seem like the location of choice for many of these productions – teeming with rich life which often goes overlooked on celluloid.

It’s interesting to know that these Council Estates – the equivalent to Stateside Housing Projects – were borne out of London’s East End slums, cleared post-WWII, the inhabitants of which went on to populate these imposing tower blocks located across Essex and Kent which, whilst initially designed as modern new architecture, soon proved to be bottlenecks for drug dealing and petty crime. It’s interesting because within this environment – so rife with unemployment and under-education, filled with individuals who rely on alcohol and drugs just to get by in their battery-farm-like existence, and where crime is one of the few prospects on the horizon – sparks of hope exist, fuelled by a yearning to break out of this would-be prison. And where Loach and Leigh wallow in the mud, painting life as it is, in truly bleak, often disillusioned fashion, new social realist filmmakers like Andrea Arnold seek to focus instead on the spark within the dark, oppressive night.

“You need sortin’ out, you do.”

“So you keep sayin’. But you’re nothin’ to me, so why should I care what you think?”

Mia is an angry fifteen-year-old living on a council estate with her single mother, Joanne, and her precocious younger sister. She has few friends, finds it hard to get along with the teenagers in the area, and spends the majority of time escaping to a deserted flat where she drinks cheap cider and practices dancing to hip-hop. She has few dreams – freeing a horse from a gypsy camp is about as adventurous as it gets – and very little to hope for in her life, after having been kicked out of one too many school, and facing being sent to an ominous “pupil referral unit.” And the arrival of her mum’s new boyfriend, Connor, poses new problems and challenges, but also gives her new hopes. Already finding it difficult to traverse the path between childhood and womanhood, Mia finds herself attracted to Connor, both sexually, and as the father figure that she never had. Will she find a way to break free to make a brighter future for herself, or will she trapped in the same destructive cycle as her mother, falling into a welfare-dependent lifestyle within some dilapidated council estate?

Fish Tank is a fantastic snapshot into life within the semi-urban margins that ring London, peppered with colourful, largely abrasive, but always realistic characters; and centred upon a very human main protagonist through whose eyes we see the desolate world around her. It neither offers social commentary nor passes judgment on the various individuals that we encounter, merely painting things as they are – people as they are – whether disillusioned or still capable of being redeemed with that spark of hope. Whilst not always sympathetic, it is possible to still empathise with some of these characters, not least Mia, a prime example of a teenager whose outward behaviour may well be aggressive and defiant to the last; whose language may be consistently foul and driven by f-bombs; but who still has a palpable vulnerability to her, the seeming over-confidence merely a front for the personality within; still in its precarious formative years and capable of being derailed from the right path much more easily than you might think.

In fact, Andrea Arnold’s creation of the lead character of Mia represents one of the two most potent elements of this powerful drama, and her choice of actress for the role was simply perfect. Apparently she first noticed then seventeen-year-old Katie Jarvis because she was having a very vocal argument with her boyfriend on a train station platform (the station that would then become a location in the movie) and, despite having no acting training whatsoever, cast her in the lead role. It was a clever and calculated decision. Arnold’s own background was one of a council estate upbringing, one of a four children packed into a small flat, in one of the tower blocks on the other side of the Thames Estuary from where Fish Tank would be set, and whilst there is no admission of this being an autobiographical affair for her, she clearly infuses the movie with very personal moments that speak of insider knowledge. And, by finding a completely new canvass to work on in teenager Katie Jarvis – who obviously had her own personal experiences to bring to the fore – Arnold was able to mould a very fresh, almost unique imagining of a 15-year old girl’s life within this realm.

And it’s Jarvis’s astonishing performance that grounds the film and gives her character real presence. Even in her dancing – which is intentionally far from perfect – she brings forth the true nature of the character. She may not be a standout dancer, but that’s because she’s not dancing for an audience, she’s dancing for herself; she’s dancing to escape. Surprisingly Jarvis is not one of these teen performers who looks like they are trying to be old before their time, even despite the fact that she is marginally older than the character she’s playing here. She perfectly combines all the necessary ingredients of naivety, arrogance, stupidity, energy, drive, determination, childlike vulnerability and blossoming sexuality, to offer us one of the most breathtakingly authentic realisations of a teenage girl ever brought to the Big Screen.

“You’re fifteen years old!”

“What does it matter, if you like someone?”

Within Mia’s world we are introduced to Kierston Wareing as her unpleasant single mother, Joanne. Whether smoking or drinking until she passes out, you can tell even from the way she dresses that Joanne doesn’t want to be a ‘mother’, her jealous eye and bitter tongue always ready to cut Mia down whenever an opportunity arises. There’s no support here, no love, just the terse criticism of a twisted sister, without any of the elements you would expect from a maternal figure, and Wareing perfectly infuses her character with these traits, coming across as one of the least sympathetic – but also most believable personalities. I mean, who would blame her bitterness – she is, after all, one of those teenage pregnancy ‘victims’ herself.

Rebecca Griffiths plays the eight-year-old sister, whose foul mouth is even more shocking than Mia’s, a precocious little brat and an utter product of the environment that she has been ‘brought up’ in. And Michael Fassbender – perhaps the only recognisable actor from the cast list, who will play Magneto in the upcoming X-Men reboot – portrays the mother’s new boyfriend, Connor, whose motivations are hard to determine, and intentions are impossible to predict. Fassbender, who was fresh off his powerful performance in Hunger when he took this role, is not only the biggest name in the movie, he’s also the only one who comes close to being out of place. It’s only a minor slight against the film, and the narrative does – eventually – try to explain it somewhat, but really, he’s just too cool, charismatic, well-spoken and handsome to possibly work as a love interest for Joanne. One night stand? Sure. Even short-term commitment to both her and her two daughters? No way.

Still, the characters depicted in the movie are strikingly true to life, not just in dialogue and demeanour, but also in the very emotions that drive them. The director, Arnold, crafts a lead protagonist who may well be on the cusp of womanhood, may act like an adult – drink, disappear and headbutt her enemies like an adult – but she’s still got that child within, and it is always present, even if it is often smothered by an abrasive exterior shell. To this end Arnold chooses to often show her as the least sexual of the individuals within the drama – from her impliedly promiscuous mother to her crop-top wearing ‘mates’, to even her eight-year-old sister (who is first seen sunbathing in a bikini). In contrast, Jarvis’s Mia habitually wears a generic, grey tracksuit – never anything revealing, with no overt sexualisation. That’s not to say she’s unattractive, nor that she doesn’t do many things that would lead an outsider to believe that she’s a fully fledged adult in all but numbers, but it does leave room for you to be able to believe that she is still, essentially, a child, and she could still be taken advantage of as such.

Aside from Andrea Arnold’s casting of Katie Jarvis as her fantastic lead Mia, the second cleverest manoeuvre this young female writer/director pulled off was in crafting so many authentic personalities, with very real emotional journeys. She did this using a technique which I’m sure has been done before – but not very often – and that is to shoot the film chronologically, only providing her actors and actresses with the scripts for their respective scenes after the previous scenes had been shot. That way the performers would not know what would happen to their characters later in the film, allowing the emotions depicted in each scene to be extremely spontaneous – true to the moment, and thus true to life. When Jarvis is dancing alone in the abandoned flat, she’s dancing purely for herself: to escape. She’s not dancing because she knows somebody may take notice sometime later in the movie. Similarly when Connor interacts with Joanne’s kids at the beginning of the film, he genuinely comes across as being innocently playful and father-like – somebody who just gets along well with kids – whereas later you might want to go back and question his original motivations. It’s an excellent trick on the part of Arnold, because it allows the displayed emotions to change from scene to scene, with subtle gestures between the characters – looks, glances through half-closed eyes, and extra look that speaks so much more than the venomous foul-mouthed words that are spoken – it’s all as it would be in real life. The result is that the characters are not only portrayed in that grey area between black and white, not only given positive and negative attributes – but they are depicted in one of the most authentic ways I have ever seen on film.

It’s not only these aspects that make Arnold’s movie stand out, even if they are what hold it all together – she has a keen eye for shooting Mia’s environment as if it were a character itself: the defined areas of the gypsy camp, the council flat, Connor’s house, even the central reservation which seems to be the most likely place anybody would find Mia – they are all visually integrated into the proceedings, further adding to the realism. You follow Mia’s footsteps as she pegs it out of the door, down the tight concrete stairwell, and out into the car park; it’s not quite guerrilla filmmaking, yet there is no doubt that Arnold is shooting it all from Mia’s perspective, even if through those eyes she can paint broad landscapes.

Similarly, Arnold does a wonderful effort with the soundtrack: the songs peppered throughout are brilliantly chosen, with the dialogue often relating the thoughts of the character via the words sung. Whether it’s Bobby Womack’s take on California Dreamin’, or Nas’s Life’s a Bitch, the messages are impossible to ignore, and sometimes mark the closest thing the movie has to moments of exposition, albeit done in a seamlessly fluid, very natural fashion.

I’m not a particular fan of the despondency of most of Mike Leigh’s filmwork, or the gritty unpleasantness of Ken Loach’s more familiar forays, but there is a redemptive humanity to Andrea Arnold which sets her apart from the rest. She previously explored the darker side of retribution in the powerful, personal Red Road, her directorial debut. Before that it was short films, but they should not be ignored either – her final short film before going into movies was entitled Wasp, and even in its brief twenty-five minutes it painted a superior picture of semiurban kitchen sink trauma. She even won an Oscar for it too. With Fish Tank, Arnold has crafted a fantastic feature length sophomore effort, which neither goes for the bleak despondence of her counterparts, nor offers up some kind of keen resolution or saccharin prediction of the future of her characters. She merely paints them as real – i.e. showing them to have a future, whatever that may be. Subtly powerful, capturing very realistic emotional responses, with sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal honesty, and empathetic characters that you can truly relate to – even if you can’t always sympathise with them, Fish Tank is well worth your time. Whether as a breathtaking new entry in the sub-genre of contemporary social realism dramas, or an acutely accurate snapshot into the life of a troubled teenage girl desperate to escape the trappings of her class, it’s a poignant journey that everybody should take.

Movie score : 9

http://www.indiewire.com/article/2011/02/22/small_screen_dvd_blu-ray_fish_tank_get_low_memento_celebrates_its_20th_anni

Small Screen (DVD/Blu-ray): “Fish Tank,” “Get Low” & “Memento” Celebrates its 10th Anniversary
by Nigel M Smith (Updated 9 hours, 9 minutes ago)

This week on DVD and Blu-ray “Fish Tank” finally drops via Criterion, Robert Duvall teams up with Bill Murray and “Memento” celebrates its 10th anniversary.

This Week’s Top Pick:

“Fish Tank” Finally Drops

The Deal: Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Andrea Arnold’s acclaimed second feature, “Fish Tank,” finally lands on DVD and Blu-ray via The Criterion Collection. Employing a similarly intimate and frank approach that marked her first feature, “Red Road,” Arnold’s “Fish Tank” finds her exploring the tough suburbs of Essex, England.

Sensational newcomer Katie Jarvis plays Mia, a foul-mouthed 15 year-old with aspirations to become a hip-hop dancer despite her dire predicaments at home. When her mother brings home an attractive new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender), Mia becomes immediately smitten with the stranger.

“Arnold’s combustible first feature, “Red Road,” wedded British kitchen sink realism with moody expressionism, a marriage she revisits and intensifies with “Fish Tank,” wrote Eric Hynes in his review of the film for indieWIRE. “Her two films are as unsentimental as they are sensitive, and so attuned to the messy modalities of behavior that even tallies of fear and heartbreak accumulate with dignity. Urban living’s concrete drabness is both bemoaned and limned with color and grace, the smallest and most desolate corner yet capable of offering escape and earthbound pleasure. Her characters may not transcend their place in the world, but at least they’re allowed to fully inhabit it.”

Extras: All three of Arnold’s short films (“Milk,” “Dog” and the Oscar-winning “Wasp”); a new video interview with actor Kierston Wareing; an interview with Fassbender from 2009; audition footage; a stills gallery by on-set photographer Holly Horner; the film’s original theatrical trailer; plus a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ian Christie. Available on DVD and Blu-ray.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/movies/s_724102.html

DVD reviews: 'Get Low' a unique, original picture
By Garrett Conti, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Last updated: 12:07 pm

"Fish Tank" (Criterion Collection)

As the story reportedly goes, Katie Jarvis had no acting experience when she was picked to handle the lead in filmmaker Andrea Arnold's "Fish Tank." An assistant saw Jarvis in an argument with her boyfriend, and recommend her for the part of Mia, the centerpiece of this British drama. Jarvis was the right pick, and she performs magically in one of the better coming-of-age movies in recent history. The film further cements Arnold's status as a director on the rise, as she provides a remarkable drama packed with hardscrabble emotion that's set in a tough area of Essex. Jarvis adds punch to her character, and great supporting players such as Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Griffiths and Kierston Wareing aid her. Mia lives with her troubled mother (Wareing) and her little sister (Griffiths), and the only thing the teen really cares about is landing a gig as a hip-hop dancer. She hones her moves in an abandoned apartment. She finds another interest when her mom brings home her newest boyfriend, a nice-looking fellow named Connor (Fassbender). Mia finds Connor attractive, and that's obvious from their first meeting. The fondness adds a twist of awkwardness to the film, and it takes off when Connor shows an interest in Mia's want to be a dancer. It eventually reaches a breaking point, though, and it might just be too late for either party to return to normalcy. Like all Criterion films, this DVD is filled with good extras. Some of Arnold's previous work, including "Wasp," an Oscar winner in 2003, is on board, along with interviews with some of the actors. NR; 2009. 4 Stars.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/carynjames/archives/2011/02/22/fish_tank/

The Oscar Gem on the “Fish Tank” DVD

Andrea Arnold’s Oscar-winning short, Wasp, is every bit as accomplished and harrowing as her amazing feature, Fish Tank, and takes the same gritty, realistic approach to its working-class characters.

In the 2003 short, a very young single mother of four leaves them in a parking lot while she has a date in the pub with a long-lost boyfriend. Arnold makes you hold your breath wondering whether a wasp flying near the baby’s mouth is the worst that will happen to these kids.

Wasp, (photo above) which won the Oscar for best live action short, is the strongest feature on the new Criterion DVD of Fish Tank. It’s easy to see Fish Tank‘s heroine (Katie Jarvis) as a girl trying not to become the woman in Wasp, even as she falls for her mother’s too-attentive boyfriend (Michael Fassbender).

Although the DVD includes two earlier shorts, it’s too bad there’s no commentary from Arnold. But maybe Wasp is enhancement enough.

Caryn James posted to Best On DVD at 8:59 am on February 22, 2011

http://blogcritics.org/video/article/dvd-review-fish-tank-the-criterion/

DVD Review: Fish Tank - The Criterion Collection

Author: Dusty Somers — Published: Feb 21, 2011 at 11:32 pm

Andrea Arnold does something kind of astonishing in Fish Tank, simultaneously paying homage to a long line of British cinema — from the kitchen sink films of Lindsay Anderson to the social realism of Ken Loach — while blazing her own trail. Fish Tank feels eminently familiar in a number of scenes, but the scenes coalesce into a film with its own texture and rhythms.

Arnold is greatly aided by Katie Jarvis, the effortlessly natural and explosive actress who stars as main character Mia. Jarvis was discovered in public by a casting director who saw her fighting with her boyfriend and here, she brings qualities of both a non-professional actor and a born performer to her first role. She’s in nearly every frame of the film, and possesses a magnetism that seems to force the camera to stay put on the kinetic energy she spontaneously gives off.

The film takes place in and around tenement housing in Essex, where 15-year-old Mia lives with her mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing), and younger sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths), a foul-mouthed riff on the precocious youngster archetype. To call Joanne a bad mother might be too generous, as she seems to have no conception of what the position entails, allowing her children to drink freely and either berating them or ignoring them as her mood fits.

Mia’s world is bleak, but Fish Tank avoids becoming excessively downbeat due to the character of Mia herself, who projects attitude into every situation she finds herself in and hangs onto her dream of becoming a dancer. The film opens with her breathing heavily, coming down from the high of dancing in her room, and the lensing of the scene matches her intensity. Arnold frequently puts us up-close-and-personal with Mia, either filling the frame with her or with what she sees.

Mia has irrepressible spunk, but there’s no denying the miserable elements of her existence, which are all around her. It’s no secret that her dancing abilities will hardly be enough to remove her from this life.

And yet Mia’s life begins to shift with the arrival of Connor (Michael Fassbender), Joanne’s boyfriend who seems to just become part of the family’s life one day. Fassbender plays the part perfectly, constantly shifting between a sense of menace and a sense of kindness, and Mia is sucked into his orbit by the humanity he injects into her life.

Once Connor enters the picture, we get a sense that Mia is finally being propelled by basic human expectations of relational interaction and common decency. He treats her like a human being, and for fleeting moments, her world seems to stabilize. But a lifetime of neglect and her burgeoning sexuality ensure that any apparent normalcy isn’t going to be a permanent fixture.

What follows is expected, but Arnold pushes her film to exhilarating lengths in the third act that comes after it, as the humanity that had briefly offered Mia hope is stripped away from her, and she responds in kind.

Fish Tank barrels toward an uncertain ending, but Arnold offers a rare moment of peace and tranquility in the hopeful conclusion. Any sense that Arnold was simply retracing the steps of similar filmmakers that come before her is almost completely obliterated by the film’s final moments. Arnold boldly blends dreary realism and vivid energy to thrilling effect.

Criterion’s DVD of the film appears to be somewhat thin on supplements at first glance, but there’s a lot of excellent bonus material here, best of which is three remastered presentations of Arnold’s three short films, "Milk" (1998), "Dog" (2001) and "Wasp" (2003), which all presage elements of Fish Tank to varying degrees. The Oscar-winning "Wasp" is a revelatory, sympathetic and heartrending story of a single mother struggling to find common ground between her parental responsibilities and personal desires. It’s worth picking up this edition for it alone.

Also featured on the disc is an interview with Wareing, who talks about the jovial atmosphere while making the film and the process that Arnold used in filming (actors only saw a few pages of the script at a time). An audio-only interview with Fassbender was conducted after a screening of the film, and the relaxed, friendly conversation is a great listen. A stills gallery features more than 50 on-set photos by Holly Horner and audition footage from 10 candidates for the role of Mia (but not Jarvis unfortunately, as she didn’t even have a proper audition most likely) shows them putting on their best dance moves.

Rounding out the package is the film’s theatrical trailer and a booklet with a wonderful-as-always essay by Ian Christie. It’s too bad we don’t get to hear from Arnold or Jarvis, but this is an excellent edition for a modern masterpiece.

http://goodchildfilm.blogspot.com/2011/02/fish-tank.html

Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Fish Tank
****
Don’t be put off by the dark and depressing backdrop, Fish Tank is surprisingly entertaining. Andrea Arnold’s second feature is far sparkier than the gloomy Red Road. It still deals with dark subject matter and is set on an equally grim estate but has a vibrant energy and is rich in humour. Granted, a lot of the humour is somewhat “gallows”. For example, the family dog is called Tenents, and her little sister’s swearing is undeniably comical.

Mia is a fifteen year-old, living on an Essex housing estate with her unloving mother and aforementioned little sister (who smokes, by the way). Social Services can’t control her and it’s looking like a one-way ticket to Palookaville. The only enjoyment she gets is from dancing. That’s dancing alone, drunk on cider, in empty flats she breaks into. And sorry no, she doesn’t get discovered by an inspiring dance instructor. This isn’t exactly popcorn. Enter her mum’s new squeeze in the shape of Michael Fassbender. He is someone the hardened Mia begins to soften to. Things don’t get much sunnier but it doesn’t descend into cliché. The tension builds and you never know which way the action is going to lead. At least this reviewer didn’t.

Everyone in it is superb and the director should be commended on drawing great performances from at least two novices in the cast. She also accords a dignity and respect, never once mocking or exploiting her subject matter.

Posted by William Goodchild at 13:32

http://dadlovesmovies.blogspot.com/2011/02/dvd-releases-for-february-22-2011.html

Tuesday, February 22, 2011
DVD Releases For February 22, 2011
There aren't a lot of new releases, but there are some good choices this week, especially the two I've marked as Best Choices.

Best Choices

Fish Tank (Rated R)
Starring Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing
I don't know how to describe this British movie, but it is an amazing film to watch. Mia is a foul-mouthed teen with a major attitude and her equally mouthy little sister start live with their mom who cares more for drinking and partying than she does for her children. When she brings home a boyfriend who actually starts to show the girls some kindness, Mia starts to develop feelings for him, especially when he encourages her in her one passion, dancing. This movie is disturbing and fascinating. Katie Jarvis is makes Mia so prickly that she pushes everyone away, but as an audience she still draws us in and makes us care for her. It's no wonder the film won last year's BAFTA award for Outstanding British Film (The King's Speech won this year), and Jarvis was a British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer. I'm looking forward to finding and watching director Andrea Arnold's other films.

http://instaflicka.squarespace.com/the-daily-picka/2011/2/22/this-was-the-best-british-film-in-2010.html

This was the Best British Film in 2010
DateTuesday, February 22, 2011 at 1:40PM

Today's best bet is Fish Tank.

This film won Best British Film at the 2010 BAFTAs. Here is the plot:

The life of hot-tempered teen outcast Mia (Katie Jarvis) takes an unexpected turn when her mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing), brings home a handsome and mysterious boyfriend named Connor (Michael Fassbender), who pledges to bring sweeping positive changes to the household.

It currently has an average 3.6 stars out of 5,995 ratings on Netflix.

http://library.booksite.com/5592/showdetail/?isbn=0715515064910&list=CNL1&cnlcode=CNL1&opacoption=OPAC_A&skin=sk1

Fish Tank
By Arnold, Andrea

British director Andrea Arnold (Red Road) won the Cannes Jury Prize for the searing and invigorating FISH TANK, about a fifteen-year-old girl, Mia (electrifying newcomer Katie Jarvis), who lives with her mother and sister in the depressed housing projects of Essex. Mias adolescent conflicts and emerging sexuality reach boiling points when her mothers new boyfriend (a lethally attractive Michael Fassbender [Hunger, Inglourious Basterds]) enters the picture. In her young career, Arnold has already proven herself to be a master of social realism (evoking the work of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach), investing her sympathetic portraits of dead-end lives with a poetic, earthy sensibility all her own. FISH TANK heralds the official arrival of a major new filmmaker.

http://www.screened.com/news/dvdblu-ray-releases-anagram-edition/1770/

DVD/Blu-Ray Releases: Anagram Edition
Added by Matt Rorie on Feb. 22, 2011

I'll be honest, folks, compiling this DVD list every week isn't all fun and games. Well, it's mostly fun and games, but sometimes it's a bit of a slog, trying to track down information on movies from Krygzistan that 200 people saw in theaters, or the latest Michael Madsen straight-to-video opus, in order to write a pithy summation that's mildly informative but not blandly so. Today, though, after a brainfart made me wonder what other words Get Low might be an anagram for, I decided to go whole hog and look up what shuffled-up titles all the other films coming out today might have been made into in some other alternate universe. You're welcome. I think.

So, if you're curious about what movie might feature a fighting move called the Ankh Fist, whether or not a Dang Mime might make an appearance, or where the crack team of Farting Sky Ops might strike next, read on!

6. Fish Tank

"Ankh Fist" made me actually laugh out loud; I imagine it as the special finishing move of an Egyptian-themed wrestler. Fish Tank, on the other hand, should serve to supply the many fans of Michael Fassbender with a bit more meat for the grinder.

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/this-week-in-dvd-february-22nd.php

This Week In DVD: February 22nd
Features By Rob Hunter on February 22, 2011

This Week in DVDThis week sees several new releases hitting shelves from big budget comedies like Due Date and Megamind to smaller films like Fish Tank and Psych 9, but the largest grouping seems to fall under the foreign film heading. Lisbeth Salander gets an attractively packaged trilogy box-set, French gangsters run rampant, a Russian teen fights crime in a flying car, and two flexible women spend a sex and talk-filled night in a hotel room. So yeah… foreign films seem to be the way to go this week.

Fish Tank (Criterion)

Pitch: If Criterion says it’s good then it mu– what’s that? They also released Armageddon? Err…

Why Rent? Haven’t seen this one yet, but just about everyone I know has raved about it and it stars Michael Fassbender so it earns a blind recommendation from me. (Neil Miller went so far as to make it his pick of the week, but as you can see above I decided to go a bit classier with mine.) A troubled teenager’s only real obsession in life is dancing, at least until her mom’s new boyfriend (Fassbender) arrives. Katie Jarvis received high praise for her raw talent in her feature debut.

http://hock-myculinaryjourney.blogspot.com/2011/02/blu-ray-releases-week-of-feb-21st-2011.html

Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Blu-ray Releases: The Week of Feb. 21st, 2011 - Due Date, Superman

Happy President's Day! It's also school vacation week here in Massachusetts and we are starting out the week with what else but some more snow. The good news is, it'll all be over in a few hours and none of that white stuff is supposed to stick around for long. After all, Punxsutawney Phil called for an early spring and we had a glimpse of it last week when temperatures soared into the 60's for a couple of days. But enough about the weather. It's that time of the week again to look at the new release stuff. Fortunately, this week's Blu-ray releases have some great films that you might want to add to your collection. Here they are:

From the Criterion Collection comes Fish Tank, a little known but really, one of the best dramas I've seen in a while. Written and directed by Englishwoman Andrea Arnold, Fish Tank has won numerous awards including the 2009 Jury Prize at the Cannes Film festival and several BAFTAs, the British equivalent of the Oscars. It tells the story of a wayward 15-year old girl, Mia (played outstandingly by newcomer Katie Jarvis) who is stuck in a poverty-stricken neighborhood with no future to look forward to. When her mother's new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender), moves in to live with them, things become utterly more complicated for everyone. Fish Tank is an outstanding drama that is deeply rooted in British lower-class realism and will keep you enthralled till the end. One thing to watch out for is the now rarely used framing aspect ratio of 1.33:1, the equivalent of the old 4:3-sized televisions. So, do not try to adjust your set when you watch this. Recommendation: A must-view, even if you don't buy it, rent it.

http://24.173.122.21/post/new-dvd-releases-february-22.aspx

New DVD Releases – February 22, 2011

This week brings a 3D animated comedy, a BAFTA Award winner, and a light-hearted comedy about fatherhood, among others. Here are new DVD releases for the week of February 22nd.

Fish Tank

Fish Tank, a film which earned a Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the 2010 BAFTA for Best British Film, is the story of an angry teen living with her troubled mother and her mother’s charming, but lecherous, boyfriend. Fish Tank stars Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, and Rebecca Griffiths.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/02/22/48-hrs-due-date-and-other-blu-ray-releases-of-the-week-022211/?mod=WSJBlog

* February 22, 2011, 12:00 PM ET

’48 Hrs,’ ‘Due Date’ and Other Blu-ray Releases of the Week: 02/22/11

By Todd Gilchrist

Despite the fact that virtually none of the week’s releases are related in any way to the Academy Awards, whose annual ceremony takes place next Sunday, February 27, there are a lot of new DVDs and Blu-rays being released this week that are well worth consumers’ attention. As per usual, there are several new releases coming to home video for the first time, a few perennial favorites finding their way onto high-definition formats, and a few rediscoveries of obscure or cult films searching for a wider audience. In fact, it was actually tough to whittle down the list of worthy candidates to a Top Five, if only because the variety and eclecticism of titles was so compelling that this week’s list felt more like Sophie’s Choice than Speakeasy’s.

But whether you agree with our pans or oppose our picks, take a look at just a few of the Blu-rays and DVDs we think are worth your attention, much less money.

Fish Tank (Criterion Collection) – Criterion’s amazing work doesn’t merely extend to titles from decades past and filmmakers forgotten; and their Blu-ray of “Fish Tank” exemplifies the attention and care they give to every title, no matter how small or large the film is. The transfer is great, protecting Andrea Arnold’s handheld cinematography with smooth, clean imagery, while a bounty of extras expands the film’s foundation. Certainly actual video would have been preferable to their audio recording of an interview with star Michael Fassbender, but thankfully, the actor is more than interesting and engaging enough to keep proceedings entertaining. Meanwhile, audition footage of girls dancing shows the wealth of talent Arnold had to choose from when casting the film, and three short films, including her Oscar-winning “Wasp,” provide a fuller and more substantive overview of Arnold’s emerging oeuvre.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2011/02/new_on_dvd_13.php

New On DVD: Due Date, Fish Tank, Get Low
By Art Attack, Tue., Feb. 22 2011 @ 9:00AM

(Capsule reviews by Karina Longworth, Ella Taylor and Chuck Wilson.)

Fish Tank
Whether Katie Jarvis--discovered on an English railway station platform yelling at her boyfriend and recruited for the lead in writer-director Andrea Arnold's new drama--is playing herself hardly matters. As Mia, a foul-mouthed, 15-year-old lost child of the Essex projects, she gives a ferociously persuasive performance in an otherwise routine tale of domestic disaster. Neglected and abused by her young mother (the excellent Kierston Wareing), this unguided missile of a girl runs in circles, dogged by a handheld camera and projecting an unsettling brew of braggadocio, nascent sexuality, and vulnerability--a lethal cocktail for all parties when her mother's boyfriend, the affable, secretive, and mostly shirtless Connor (Hunger's Michael Fassbender), moves in. Arnold (Red Road) is a talented exponent of the new British miserabilism--verite kitchen-sink drama, trimmed with visual poetry and a visceral candor about sex that's unusual coming from a woman filmmaker, as is her preoccupation with voyeurism. Yet the action feels more contrived than inherently dramatic, and when Mia drops her guard, the movie turns stiff and pat, leaving us feeling manipulated by Arnold's desire to give Mia the worst life she can think of, followed by a great escape. Arnold's gift for evoking what it feels like to inhabit an arbitrary world ends up fatally undermined by a denouement so hammy, it invokes a giggle rather than a tear. Ella Taylor

123 minutes
Not Rated

http://blu-ray.blog105.com/?p=1088

Small Screen (DVD/Blu-ray): 'Fish Tank,' 'Get Low' & 'Memento' Celebrates its …
Published on February 23, 2011 in General. 0 Comments Tags: blu ray.

“Fish Tank” Finally Drops

The Deal: Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Andrea Arnold’s acclaimed second feature, “Fish Tank,” finally lands on DVD and Blu-ray via The Criterion Collection. Employing a similarly intimate and frank approach that marked her first feature, “Red Road,” Arnold’s “Fish Tank” finds her exploring the tough suburbs of Essex, England.

Sensational newcomer Katie Jarvis plays Mia, a foul-mouthed 15 year-old with aspirations to become a hip-hop dancer despite her dire predicaments at home. When her mother brings home an attractive new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender), Mia becomes immediately smitten with the stranger.

“Arnold’s combustible first feature, “Red Road,” wedded British kitchen sink realism with moody expressionism, a marriage she revisits and intensifies with “Fish Tank,” wrote Eric Hynes in his review of the film for indieWIRE. “Her two films are as unsentimental as they are sensitive, and so attuned to the messy modalities of behavior that even tallies of fear and heartbreak accumulate with dignity. Urban living’s concrete drabness is both bemoaned and limned with color and grace, the smallest and most desolate corner yet capable of offering escape and earthbound pleasure. Her characters may not transcend their place in the world, but at least they’re allowed to fully inhabit it.”

Extras: All three of Arnold’s short films (“Milk,” “Dog” and the Oscar-winning “Wasp”); a new video interview with actor Kierston Wareing; an interview with Fassbender from 2009; audition footage; a stills gallery by on-set photographer Holly Horner; the film’s original theatrical trailer; plus a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ian Christie.

Source: Toon Zone

[ Read Full Article ]

http://sacvs.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/andrea-arnolds-magnificent-masterpiece-fish-tank/

Andrea Arnold’s Magnificent Masterpiece “Fish Tank”
February 24, 2011

Sweet Jesus, where do I start with this film? For one, the opening sequence for Fish Tank is some of the most powerful stuff I’ve seen in a long while. I watched this film at the Chicago Int’l Film Festival back in October 2009, going into the theatre knowing absolutely nothing. What I witnessed inside that room was something of another level, something that truly broke my boundaries as a cinephile. I was not very familiar with the lead actor in the film at the time, Michael Fassbender, whose work has been shining ferociously to this day. His performance along with first-time-actress Katie Jarvis is a chemistry that you only truly see in real life. The film is about a very young girl who lives with her kid sister and single mother, and their mum’s boyfriend (Michael Fassbender).

I had never seen anything by director Andrea Arnold before, but I was so intrigued by her that I did my homework and my jaw dropped with what I discovered. Ms. Arnold is a director who really likes to provoke the fullest potential from her instruments, in the film, namely Katie Jarvis. Andrea works in a way where the actors only get to see their own lines prior to filming, leaving an ultimate unknown for them. Meaning that you only get to see your co-star’s lines on the actual day of shooting film. This is fascinating to me, because some of my favorite musicians work in the same way while recording in the studio. Andrea also films in chronological order while shooting, which I think is very important especially for a film of this emotional magnitude.

Now back to Katie Jarvis, this young beautiful woman was discovered by the casting director’s assistant one day while she was yelling across a train platform to her boyfriend. That’s how easy it is when you have natural talent. She had never been in front of a camera before in her life, and here she is starring in one of the best films of the last decade. Please do yourself a very nice favor and order this film from Criterion. The Collection was classy enough to release it both on DVD and Blu-ray: both containing video interviews with cast, audition footage, and most importantly Andrea’s first three short films. There is so much more to say about this film but to get a true sense of what I am hyping up, please see it for yourself. Thank you. -Pouya G. Asadi

http://filmatlanta.org/blog/giving-away-free-movie-passes-for-2-and-other-movie-promo-items-at-get-connected-tonight/

Thursday, February 24, 2011
Fish Tank (DVD)

Fish Tank (2009) starring Katie Jarvis, Kierston Wareing, Michael Fassbender. Life of hot-tempered teen outcast Mia (Jarvis) seems to be taking a turn for the better when her mother (Wareing) brings home new boyfriend Connor (Fassbender). Connor treats Mia decently, and seems to be the father figure she needs in her life. But Connor soon turns out to be more of a kind of "funny uncle," and when he messes with Mia he finds himself in deeper than he could have anticipated. All in all, it's a grim tale, without a happy ending. Interesting to watch, though. The subtitles are hard to find, and just adequate. Grade: B
Posted by jim larsen at 5:30 PM

http://www.criticker.com/blog/index.php/2011/02/24/dvd-report-february-22nd/

DVD Report – February 22nd
Published by
mpowell
at February 24, 2011 in DVD. 0 Comments

There are a few great films on DVD this week, including Mesrine: Killer Instinct, the first half of Vincent Cassel’s take on the famous French criminal, and Get Low, a suspenseful character piece. But the pick of the week is Fish Tank, a British drama about a troubled teen played magnificently by newcomer Katie Jarvis. Criticker users loved it.

Criticker PickFish Tank – Average Tier 7.15
The life of hot-tempered teen outcast Mia (Katie Jarvis) takes an unexpected turn when her mother (Kierston Wareing) brings home a handsome and mysterious boyfriend named Connor (Michael Fassbender), who pledges to bring sweeping positive changes to the household. Fish Tank @ Amazon

http://glamfilms.com/glamnews/week-dvd-blu-ray-due-date-megamind-get-low-fish-tank-and-more

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray: Due Date, Megamind, Get Low, Fish Tank, and More
February 24, 2011 by superadmin

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

FISH TANK (CRITERION COLLECTION)
Fish Tank is the movie Precious wishes it could’ve been. Both films depict a young girl’s struggle to escape the confines of their lower class lifestyle, but Fish Tank does so without actively wallowing in misery. Yes, the film can be upsetting—sometimes devastatingly so—but its stark realism comes from a place of thoughtful, empathetic honesty rather than deliberately intensified hideousness. Fish Tank also benefits from genuine narrative progression. As the film hurtles toward a certain nauseatingly inevitable development, it’s hard not to share the anger of this deeply troubled, suffocated teenager—one who, after entering the picture as a detestable shrew, continues to grow in the hearts and minds of the viewer. The film has a rare, raw power, and should not be missed. [Currently streaming on Netflix Watch Instantly.]

Available on Blu-ray? Yes.

Notable Extras: DVD & Blu-ray – Three short films by director Andrea Arnold: Milk (1998), Dog (2001), and the Oscar-winning Wasp (2003), New video interview with actor Kierston Wareing, Audio conversation with actor Michael Fassbender from 2009, Audition footage, Stills gallery by set photographer Holly Horner, PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ian Christie.

http://gordonandthewhale.com/your-netflix-instant-weekend-last-train-home-un-chien-andalou-and-more/

FISH TANK, a portrait of a young girl spiraling out of control. The film also stars the always reliable Michael Fassbender.

http://www.the-frame.com/2011/02/dvd-triage-week-of-february-22/

DVD Triage: Week of February 22
Posted on February 24, 2011

My Buy pick this week is one I’ve been waiting on for a LONG time, ever since I saw it and especially since I heard it would be a Criterion release. Please, please at least rent Fish Tank…it’s one of the most powerful and memorable films I’ve seen over the past several years. Beyond that, Criterion has a couple of more good releases out – Sweet Smell of Success is probably worth a buy as well, but definitely a rent. Then there’s a bunch of stuff I remember hearing about at festivals and thinking sounded interesting (Carmo, Hit the Road, Mesrine: Killer Instinct, Road, Movie, etc.). Oh, and some animated thingie and some comedy thingie.

Fish Tank Criterion Collection
If I said I’d been anticipating this release since I first saw the film at the 2009 AFI Film Festival, I’d only be exaggerating because I had no idea it would be a Criterion release. I was already a fan of Andrea Arnold based on her debut Red Road, but Fish Tank is even better, a visceral, overpowering film of working-class London and a teenager who survives as best she can. But descriptions pale next to the film itself, which is a revelation for both Arnold and Katie Jarvis, who is so incredible you won’t believe it’s her first film. Also on Instant Watch.

2009 UK. Director: Andrea Arnold. Starring: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender.