Reviews and SPOILERS

http://www.commonground.ca/iss/224/cg224_alstead.shtml

Tough coming of age stories

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead
fishtank

Fish Tank is a spare and gritty rite of passage flick.

Fish Tank (out on March 12) is one of those gritty, working class, Brit flicks that makes few concessions to the demands of commercial cinema. Set in the grimy hinterlands of contemporary underclass England, it’s a rite of passage drama about a bored and stroppy teenager, Mia, whose transition into adulthood begins when her mum brings a new man home to their grungy, high-rise flat.

Dialogue is spare, with characters not so much talking as spitting words at each other. There is no soundtrack to speak of, just incidental music. Even the story itself has this minimalist quality to it, with a backdrop of inhospitable, usually decaying urban settings, offset by forays into the nearby countryside, which seem alien in their lushness.

From the start, 15-year-old Mia is ready to break loose. We meet her early on head-butting a classmate. Mia is a bit of a loner, escaping the claustrophobic setting of the housing estate through boozing and listening to hip-hop on her Discman. She’s always fighting with her mouthy, younger sister (non-actor Rebecca Griffiths) and single mum Joanne (Kierston Wareing), who looks young enough to be her elder sister. When mum brings home smooth talking Irishman Connor (Michael Fassbender of Inglourious Basterds), he starts taking a special interest in Mia, even encouraging her to enter a dance audition. Initially, Connor takes on a father figure role, driving the family to the countryside, lending Mia money, but their relationship becomes loaded with sexual tension.

Fish Tank has much in common with director Andrea Arnold’s debut feature, the assured and memorable Red Road. Both films focus on the inner turmoil of a strong female lead and explore the themes of sexual betrayal and empowerment. Red Road was also set in a working class tower block estate. Both are psychodramas, creating mystery and suspense as we watch the motivations driving the main characters.

Arnold is in her element and draws a strong performance from non-actress Katie Jarvis (discovered while she was arguing with her boyfriend in a railway station), while Fassbender as Connor exudes easy warmth. The film reflects Mia’s desperation and confusion, but without over-delineating the point. Arnold simply sets you down in the thick of things and lets you find your way, with visual metaphors sign-posted along the way. The camera also reflects the feral energy of the young protagonist, who is virtually always on screen. It never seems to stop moving, searching for something.

Somehow, out of the pits of despair, the film manages to come up with something real and hopeful with an ending that is beautifully understated. It’s good to see that at the BAFTAs, Britain’s equivalent to the Oscars, held last month, Fish Tank won Best British Film award (the excellent Moon reviewed in an earlier column won the award for Best Debut).

http://www.artscriticatl.com/2010/02/film-review-the-award-winning-fish-tank-a-dive-into-british-trailer-trash-life/

Film review: Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank,” diving into Britain’s bleak housing projects
by Steve Murray | Feb 28, 2010

In the sweetest emotional exchange in “Fish Tank,” a girl throws her arms around her big sister and sobs, “I hate you.”

“I hate you, too,” replies Mia (Katie Jarvis) with a fondness we haven’t heard from her before. A jaded 15-year-old, Mia is a foul-mouthed but open-hearted survivor of the rough coming-of-age trial that constitutes Andrea Arnold’s alternately bracing and contrived movie.

Winner earlier this month of a BAFTA (Brit’s answer to the Oscars) for Outstanding British Film, “Fish Tank” sticks to the sort of bleak, low-income housing projects Arnold focused on in her terrific “Red Road” (2006). Mia lives with kid sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths) and their mother Joanne (Kierston Wareing) – who looks barely older than her own children. In their loud high-rise apartment, the TV blares constantly, Joanne is always smoking and drinking (so are her daughters), and the three of them curse one another with paint-peeling vehemence.

The bitterness and squalor get troweled on so thickly at the start, a viewer might fear the movie is going to be a kitchen-sink, sociological tract – a Caucasian, UK cousin of, say, “Precious.” That feeling is compounded by what look like bursts of faux uplift: Mia hopes to escape her dead-end life by becoming a dancer, and repeatedly tries to liberate a white horse tied up in a nearby trailer park.

Give the movie a chance, though. After all, the dancing Mia aspires to is of the skanky, music-video sort, and that white horse is starving to death. It won’t be carrying Mia into any sort of fairytale kingdom at the end.

There is a sort of Prince Charming in the person of Connor, mom’s new boyfriend. Played with a fantastic mix of paternal charm and boyish sexiness by Michael Fassbender (of “Hunger” and “Inglourious Basterds”), Connor is the first person in a while who seems to actually see Mia, and care what she thinks. Which could either be a very good or a very bad thing.

The plot of “Fish Tank” is slim and, after a certain point, predictable. What makes it worth watching is writer-director Arnold’s filmmaking process, which owes a debt to fellow UK filmmakers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. Shooting in chronological sequence, she reportedly only fed her actors portions of the script at a time. They didn’t know exactly where the drama was headed, or what would happen to their characters. The result, for the viewer, is a shared sense of discovery. And, occasionally, of danger.

“Fish Tank.” With Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing. Unrated. 123 minutes. At Landmark Midtown Art Cinema.

http://www.criticnic.com/2010/02/fish-tank-2009/

Fish Tank (2009)

Director/writer: Andrea Arnold | Rated: n/a (language/strong sexuality) | Review date: 21-Feb-2010

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank has won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and after viewing it there’s no surprise as to why. The film stars newcomer Katie Jarvis as Mia, a troubled 15 year old growing up in a fairly low income area of England with her drunken and abusive mother (Kierston Wareing) and her younger sister (Rebecca Griffiths). Things take a big change when Mia’s mom brings home Connor, played by Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds).

Mia spends her days wondering around town, typically getting into trouble and doing things to try to escape her life. We soon find one of the few things that actually brings her happiness in her life is hip hop dancing. It’s as if she can escape the life she feels so trapped in when immersing herself into dance. As she see’s more of Connor he gives her the confidence she needs, however things start to become very awkward between the two. While nice guy Connor seems to be a caring and all around good guy, a few interactions between Mia and him early on make the viewer believe there is more than meets the eye. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Jeff from David Slade’s Hard Candy when observing Connor.

As the movie progresses we can pretty much see where it’s going to go. While there was a little bit of predictability at times, it still drew me in and made me care about what happened to the characters. Mia in particular is such a captivating character; we really feel her pain and can relate to her struggles. Katie Jarvis plays the role with such conviction that one wonders whether she’s shared any of the experiences with her character. The other characters really pull on our emotions as well, causing us to feel every bit of anger and sadness with such realism. The actors really do a fabulous job conveying the emotions and feelings associated with their characters, so much so that it becomes very intense at times.

The film spans the better part of 2 hours and at times feels a little drawn out. Despite this, I never found myself bored with this movie, as every shot is beautiful and captivating and added to the overall mood. This is the type of movie that really makes one think during and after viewing. It’s troubling because we know situations like those presented in the film happen every day in real life and it almost leaves us with a depressing feeling. The realism in this movie is really what makes it work, and the heartfelt performances make it all the better.

Fish Tank is an emotionally charged drama dealing with the topics of isolation, hopelessness, and relationships. It’s a beautiful coming of age drama that doesn’t sugarcoat anything about growing up. Some parts of this movie are hard to take in, and there’s one scene in particular that may bother many viewers. However Arnold handles these scenes with such care that they are never exploitive and always are relevant to the story. I can assure you that we’ll be seeing much more of Katie Jarvis in the future, and it will be very interesting to see where her career goes.

Overall this film is one of the better dramas out there that doesn’t give you any kind of manufactured reality. The ending we’re presented with is kind of open ended, but there was a little feeling of hope and resolution that we’re left with which I really enjoyed. Andrea Arnold has created a coming of age masterpiece that sheds light on the less-than-glamorous side of growing up.
Official site | IMDb/trailers

US DVD and Blu-ray coming soon!

http://www.dailyfilmdose.com/2010/03/fish-tank.html

Monday, March 1, 2010
Fish Tank
- By Alan Bacchus
Labels: *** 1/2 , 2009 Films , Andrea Arnold , British , Kitchen Sink
Fish Tank (2009) dir. Andrea Arnold
Starring: Kate Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Griffiths

***1/2

By Alan Bacchus

Mia (Kate Jarvis) is a typical British 15-year-old, full of anger for no apparent reason other than the constant feeling of working class squalor engulfing her wherever she goes. Her family life is a precarious pile of Jenga blocks, her single mother parties like she's her daughter's age and takes no responsibility for either her or Mia's eight-year-old sister, and the trio constantly bicker, dropping harsh English f-bombs as their primary form of greeting.

Mia, thus, has become her own rebel without a cause. Her only outlet is her desire to dance in a hip-hop dance crew, and though she'd dedicated to practice, she's just no good. When mother brings her new boyfriend, Connor, into the house, Mia develops a deep carnal schoolgirl crush on him. His masculine charm is infectious and gradually a coy game of flirtation snowballs into a something highly inappropriate.

Fish Tank plays like a British kitchen sink version of 'An Education': the intoxication of a young girl's puppy love for an older man, and the subsequent betrayal of that love and trust.

Director Andrea Arnold is absolutely clear that Mia's town is the armpit of British suburban life. Such material could easily have been the stuff of "slit your wrists" too if it were not for Arnold's ability to put us in the shoes of young Mia and into the fascinating rollercoaster ride of teenaged emotions.

Arnold lasers right in on Mia, the camera never ever leaving her sight. She follows her through the streets, stores, tenement buildings and Home Depots, much like how the Dardenne brothers track their characters. But since we're completely within Mia's point of view, Arnold only needs to hide from us what doesn't Mia know.

The first act, a series of confrontations between Mia and her mom, her sister, her enemies and her friends sets up a welcomed tonal shift to the pleasures of having a nearly complete family unit. When the hunky Michael Fassbender, playing Connor, enters the picture, suddenly the skies clear and we as the audience get caught up on Mia's love struck haze. But what's the catch?

Like 'An Education', Arnold admirably hides Connor's earth-shattering deception from both Mia and the audience. And after a thunderous one-two punch of dramatic beats, Mia gets a quick lesson in the untrustworthiness of man.

The emotion is not lost on us either. Where Carey Mulligan's character passively accepts her lover's infidelity, Mia fights back with an agonizingly suspenseful act of revenge.

http://frontrow.dmagazine.com/2010/02/newcomer-katie-jarvis-ignites-the-screen-as-the-adolescent-id-in-fish-tank/

Newcomer Katie Jarvis Ignites The Screen As The Adolescent Id in Fish Tank
By Peter Simek February 26, 2010 2:00pm
Rating
G Y R
Location
Angelika Film Center 5321 E. Mockingbird Ln. Dallas, TX 75206
Dates
Opens Feb 26

There’s a lot riding on the shoulders of first-time actor Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank, the latest film by British director Andrea Arnold. Her performance makes or breaks the movie. Jarvis plays Mia, an adolescent girl who lives a tough, impoverished life in a charmless apartment block on the outskirts of London and falls for her mother’s boyfriend Connor (Michael Fassbender – Inglorious Bastards, Band of Brothers). It is remarkable that Arnold trusted the role of Mia to Jarvis, an absolute unknown, a girl who was spotted arguing with her boyfriend by a casting director on a train platform. And yet Jarvis’ inexperience is Fish Tank’s secret ingredient. The film is one of those realist efforts (think the Dardenne brothers) whose power comes from a rawness of action and immediacy of its characters. Jarvis doesn’t so much act in the movie as play herself. The result is a story that is honest and deeply felt – an adolescent on screen who isn’t exaggerated, romanticized, characterized, or underserved.

Mia lives with her mother and ten-year-old sister in grim circumstances. Her mother parties, philanders, and neglects. Her sister smokes, drinks, and swears. Mia is adolescent id. Her moods swing wildly. She lashes out and attacks, is cut-off, withdrawn, and temperamental. She wanders the streets, picks fights, and finds solace by stealing off to an empty apartment where she dances, imitating the moves she learns from hip-hop videos on television.

Into this mix enters Connor, Mia’s mother’s new boyfriend. Mia first encounters Connor when he is standing in the kitchen of their apartment shirtless. The film becomes charged from there on out with sexual tension that builds between the hunky Connor and the 15-year old. She falls for him like a typical teenager: shy and flirty, possessive and suggestive. Connor indulges her. All he needs to do is pay attention to the outcast Mia, and she is smitten.

Fish Tank’s allure is Mia’s heart. It is on fire – even before she meets Connor – and the unfolding of their relationship is just a foil for its eruption. Arnold achieves a deep physical and psychological intimacy with her camera. Its eye explores and lingers, allowing Jarvis to simmer and boil. Arnold is telling the story of an illicit a romance, but it becomes a meditation, a series of moments that capture the forging of spirit in the gauntlet of adolescence. Her achievement is being able to get something this honest to work on screen.

http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/teen-girl-boners/Content?oid=2326692


Teen Girl-Boners
s$#! Gets Real in Fish Tank
by Zac Pennington
Fish Tank
dir. Andrea Arnold
Opens Fri March 5
Cinema 21

WHEN IT COMES to that particularly British school of realist filmmaking, there's a very fine line that runs between transcendent, grittily effective pathos and boring-ass real life with an extra coat of chip grease smeared across the top. In Fish Tank, the latest from Oscar-winning writer/director Andrea Arnold, this narrow partition is marked with something that looks suspiciously like fishing line—stretched taut, and placed strategically at ankle height.

A familiarly queasy coming-of-age story, Fish Tank follows 15-year-old ruffian Mia (newcomer Katie Jarvis) as she navigates the environmental stumbling blocks of her ne'er-do-well, party-girl mother (Kierston Wareing), the substantial teen girl-boner she's developed for mom's sexy new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender), and—above all else, it seems—the seething anger and resentment that appears to color her every waking breath. But also, obvs, she's got this hella beautiful dream: to be Britain's greatest white B-girl. Then s$#! gets dark. s$#! always gets dark.

As far as British social realism goes, Fish Tank has got quite a lot going for it: The film is beautifully shot and exceptionally acted, and deals with female adolescent sexuality in a subtle, refreshingly frank fashion. And though the film's struggle for uncompromising authenticity is an admirable one, it also turns out to be its greatest flaw. Its narrative is repetitive and predictable, it's curtained in a circuitous and unrelenting sense of dread, there's a constantly looming threat of physical violence, and it's overly long. In other words: just like real life. Realism is one thing, but god knows it's a chore to suffer through most of these misfortunes on a daily basis anyway. Arnold's lens may be unflinching, but it's not particularly insightful. And just as it seems as though the ominous third act might actually redeem the strains of predictability, Fish Tank concludes with an unfortunate you're-gonna-make-it-after-all coda. In spite of its many successes, Fish Tank ultimately falters over a tripwire it's laid for itself.

http://mss.typepad.com/blog/2010/02/transgressions.html

February 22, 2010
Transgressions

In the opening minutes of Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank, three things in particular stood out to me: the aspect ratio, which is 1.33:1, instead of the more standard academy or CinemaScope ratios; the large tower-block apartments that dominate the landscape, as shown in the background of the image above; and the pent-up anger of the film's protagonist, Mia (Katie Jarvis), a fifteen-year-old girl living in Essex County, England. The aspect ratio was an interesting choice. With the square frame and tight shots, Arnold is able to box in her viewers and bring them close to Mia's social world. What's more, the ratio has an additional aesthetic effect; that square frame, the short depth-of-field, and Arnold's use of light made me feel as if I was looking at a long series of medium-format photographs, the kind produced by those Pentax, Hasselblad, Rolleiflex, and Mamiya cameras I'd love to own but lack either time or money (or both) to master. They can create evocative, nearly dreamlike images. In and of themselves, the subjects of Arnold's camera are not inherently lovely; they are generic, concrete tower-blocks in Essex, abandoned lots and yards, rundown streets, unkempt sidewalks. But the visual approach gives them dimension and life, and the varied images themselves, ranging from young boys sitting on playgrounds watching girls dance to Mia peering out of her apartment window or Conner (Michael Fassbender) showing Mia how to catch fish in a shallow river, all make Fish Tank one of the more beautifully photographed films I've seen in the last few years.

Arnold's visual sensibility includes a particular taste for landscape, too, and her wide shots, though relatively infrequent, showcase those tower-blocks and other physical markers of an area of Britain that has long gone underdeveloped and unnoticed. Arnold essentially underscores how one's physical environment can compound the limitations of one's social status, opportunity, and personal comportment. Mia's anger stems from multiple sources, from her lack of education and economic stability, the absence of close friends and a father figure, the presence of an irresponsible mother and a confrontational younger sister. But it stems as well from the hopelessness of her surroundings, whose habitual neglect parallels her own. Mia's hopes suffer as well; she thinks her dancing might eventually lead her to a life apart from her tower-block culture, but she can only practice in an abandoned apartment, without any mirrors. She's forced to discover, to her dismay, that, like so much else in this particular environment, any limited talent she might have only turns her into a commodity to be fetishized or used. As a social filmmaker, Arnold seems very intent on revealing the kinds of prices people, especially women, often pay in certain socio-economic circumstances; as Kristin Jones writes in the latest issue of Film Comment, Arnold's female characters, including Mia, "might have blossomed" had their personal and social environments been far more formidable.

Like Red Road, its predecessor, Fish Tank unfortunately slips where it's supposed to hold fast, after Mia strikes a friendship with her mother's paternal yet seductive boyfriend (Fassbender), and the friendship proves to be disastrous. The film's central crisis (essentially, a rape) seems untenable because Arnold presents it more as a lapse in judgment and a plot device than an inherently wrong act, and she then eventually follows it with an extreme, if strange, reaction from Mia. By that point,Fish Tank seemed distractingly, unnecessarily, cruel to me. But, even with these shortcomings, Arnold nevertheless finds the locus of her concerns. As Jones puts it, Arnold "provides ample evidence for how easily minor transgressions ... can shade into more destructive ones." Alcohol, flirtation, careless living, anger and the need to channel it elsewhere eventually produce more extreme acts that reverberate against one another, and the metaphor in the film's title ultimately bears its import in the film's final act: here, in Essex, people's actions spiral in place, instead of extending beyond their physical boundaries.

* * *

Posted at 12:11 AM

http://citypaper.net/movies/movie.php/id/76734/

Fish Tank

No Rating | CP Grade: A-
Fish Tank
more images: 1, 2, 3, 4

"You dance like a black. It's a compliment," says Connor (Michael Fassbender) as he watches his girlfriend’s daughter, Mia (Katie Jarvis), mimic the moves in an Ashanti video. Fifteen years old, sullen and skinny, Mia imagines she’ll soon be dancing her way out of the housing project where she lives with her miserable, hard-partying mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing), and suitably confused younger sister, Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths). Throughout Andrea Arnold's follow-up to her mesmerizing Red Road, Mia's vision is limited. This much is made plain in Fish Tank's opening scene, as Mia practices her moves in an empty flat. When she pauses to look out the dirty window, she sees more of the same, grim buildings and narrow streets. Then, from her bedroom, Mia spots Joanne dancing in her underwear; as much as she wants not to be like her mother, still, they mirror each other, especially as Connor's flirtations with Mia become more pronounced. Even outside the flat, Mia finds more reflections, one a scrawny gray horse chained to a rock near a gypsy trailer, the other a gypsy kid, Billy (Harry Treadaway), who brings her along when he steals car parts. Encouraging Mia to follow her "dream," Connor provides a video camera so she can make an audition tape. But she misgauges the solicitations, from both Connor and the business-seeking dancers. If Mia's story is familiar, the film represents it in evocative, even haunting images. Close-ups offer access to unspoken feelings; long shots underline Mia's sense of smallness amid a depressingly static chaos. The mobile frames are always slightly off, as Mia misunderstands what she sees and also eludes your understanding. This is the film's most effective strategy, to connect images that promote desire with images that do not. —Cindy Fuchs

Comments

Rating: No Rating
Director: Andrea Arnold
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Harry Treadaway, Kierston Wareing, Jason Maza, Katie Jarvis, Jack Gordon, Charlotte Collins, Brooke Hobby, Chelsea Chase
Release Date: January 15, 2010 (Limited)
Running Time: 122
Distributor: IFC
Producer: Kees Kasander
Genre: Drama

Sounds to me like women are affected in a very powerful way by this film.

Yes, it can be a very powerful, confusing film.

You have until next weekend right? Can't wait to hear your opinions

http://www.playbackstl.com/movie-reviews/9428-fish-tank-ifc-films-nr

Fish Tank (IFC Films, NR)

Written by Pete Timmermann Thursday, 04 March 2010 20:36

While Fish Tank isn’t completely flawless, its excellent handling of the complex relationship between characters makes it stand out.

My favorite film of 2009 was Lone Scherfig’s An Education, which is about a sixteen-year-old who gets into a complicated relationship with a thirtysomething man. A few days into 2010 I first saw Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, which feels amazingly much like an indie version of An Education—as if Fish Tank came out first (it didn’t; An Education had its world premiere at Sundance in January 2009; Fish Tank had its world premiere at Cannes in May 2009), was deemed too rough-around-the-edges for American audiences, and a Hollywood remake of it was staged in the form of An Education. I generally like rough-around-the-edges better than glossy, so it stands to reason I would like Fish Tank better than An Education. As of this writing that isn’t the case, but it seems reasonable to think that after giving each film a few more screenings each, Fish Tank might best An Education in the long run.

The protagonist of Fish Tank is the 15-year-old juvenile delinquent Mia, who is played amazingly well by newcomer and non-professional Katie Jarvis, whom Arnold invited to a casting call after seeing her yelling at her boyfriend on a train platform. After getting into some trouble in the first reel Mia finds out that she’s being sent to boarding school, to get her out of trouble, and, more importantly, out of her young party animal mom’s (Kierston Wareing) hair. Mia has two methods of escape from her no-prospect life—she enjoys dancing, specifically hip hop-style dancing, which she practices alone in an abandoned building and secretly hopes to make a career of, and also her mom (generally referred to in the movie by her first name, Joanne, as if she and Mia were sisters) brings home a new boyfriend named Connor (rising star and excellent actor Michael Fassbender, who you perhaps recognize from Hunger or Inglourious Basterds, and who here looks remarkably like Matthew McConaughey, maybe because he wanders around half the time without a shirt) who serves as something between a crush and a father figure for Mia. Connor’s appearance makes life better for every member of the all-girl family; even Mia’s foul-mouthed little sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths) likes him, telling him shortly after their first meeting, “I like you. I’ll kill you last.”

While Fish Tank isn’t completely flawless (Mia’s trying to free a tied up horse is far too transparent a metaphor), its excellent handling of the complex relationship between Connor and Mia (or Connor and Joanne, or Connor and Tyler, for that matter) makes it stand out, as do the performances by Jarvis and Fassbender. In the opening scene, as well as a few other key scenes, Jarvis has to dance, and watch the way she does it—she seems much more like a young girl trying really hard and doing pretty well than a professional dancer, which is how similar scenes like this in any other movie ever have come off. It probably helps that Jarvis herself is no dancer, and reportedly felt funny about doing it on camera. There’s a certain realism that only non-professional actors can seem to attain, and Jarvis hits it dead-on. Fish Tank couldn’t be better off for it. | Pete Timmermann

http://detnews.com/article/20100305/ENT02/3050326/Review---Fish-Tank--connects-with-difficult-truths

Last Updated: March 05. 2010 1:00AM
Tom Long Film Review: 'Fish Tank' -- GRADE: A-
Review: 'Fish Tank' connects with difficult truths
Tom Long / Detroit News Film Critic

Mia is mad most of the time.

At 15, she lives with her alcoholic, party-girl mother (Kierston Wareing) and foul-mouthed younger sister (Rebecca Griffiths) in a down-and-out apartment building. Her only interest is dancing, which she practices in an empty apartment she's broken into. She has no friends -- in fact most of the local girls are her outright enemies.

When her mother brings home a new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender), Mia spits out the usual resentment, but eventually succumbs to his easy charm. He encourages her dancing, and even though she can still turn vicious at the slightest provocation, she begins building an unlikely alliance with him.

As played by the remarkable Katie Jarvis -- an untrained actress who was supposedly discovered while in the midst of a public fight with her boyfriend -- Mia stands in for every miserable, resentful, intelligent child born to a life of neglect and wrong turns.

In some ways, "Fish Tank," the story of Mia's relationship with Connor and her family, is a British version of last year's "Precious." It can be hard to watch, and what little hope it offers needs to be sought out.

But writer-director Andrea Arnold, working in British lower-class realism, still finds wondrous moments of connection in Mia's life.

When she attempts to rescue a horse, when an act of revenge goes wrong, most devastatingly when Mia's family breaks into a sad dance of departure toward the movie's end, this film rings with harsh truth.

It's hard to watch, but then again it's hard not to watch. "Fish Tank" has no easy answers -- we all just swim around and around -- but man, does it have some good questions.

http://smellslikescreenspirit.com/2010/03/fish-tank-review/

Fish Tank | Review

By Don Simpson | March 4, 2010
Director: Andrea Arnold

Writer: Andrea Arnold

Starring: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender

As an heir apparent to the British social realist tradition of Ken Loach’s working-class dramas, director Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank is a painfully bleak portrait of modern life on an Essex estate (which, for us Yanks, is a half-step up from the ghetto) – a steely urban wasteland located somewhere near Tilbury.

We never witness the protagonist – an aggressive and jaded 15-year-old named Mia (Katie Jarvis) – attend school (apparently she has been expelled and may be going to boarding school next) and she is rarely out of her life’s uniform of choice: hoodie and sweat pants. Mia resides in a dreary non-descript council flat with her mother – more like a slutty, foul-mouthed and foul-tempered older sister – Joanne (Kierston Wareing) and a potty-mouthed, beer drinking and cigarette smoking prepubescent younger sister – Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths). Together (with no father in sight) they are indeed the poster family for “broken Britain” – the hopelessly marginalized class of high-rise, low-income Britain. The most unpleasantly sour, piss-off existence if ever there was one. Together they personify the mantra of the prominently-featured Nas track: “life’s a bitch and then you die.”

Apparently the only form of communication for Mia’s family is yelling at outlandishly loud decibels (Arnold’s casting agent discovered Jarvis in the midst of an argument with her boyfriend at Tilbury station in Essex) – and their language is riddled by profanity and hatred. When a working man – an Irishman named Connor (Michael Fassbender) – enters their lives as Joanne’s new boyfriend, the three intense females begin to mellow out thanks to the lulling nature of his attentive charm and apparent kindness. In fact, Connor seems to be the only factor that can keep the three females in the same room without an incredibly violent combustion. Connor even goes as far as ushering them to the country – thus forcing them to peacefully coexist for an extended period of time while in the restricted confines of a car. During this excursion, Connor introduces them to his favorite music – it is “weird shit” (as Joanne calls it), like Bobby Womack’s “California Dreamin’” and “Get Up Offa That Thing” by James Brown, but they adapt to it quickly. It is not long before Womack’s “California Dreamin’” is Mia’s favorite song and it becomes the soundtrack to her fantasy of escaping the concrete jungle of Essex.

Connor’s cooling affect seems to be strongest with Mia – when she is around Connor her personality is toned-down to somewhere around content bordering on pleasant. Yet, we are not fooled by this: from Connor’s initial ogling of Mia as she sensually dances in the kitchen (“like a black” – which, according to Connor, is a compliment) to Mia’s wanting stare of Connor’s bare-chested body, it is easy to predict down which path this story will eventually travel. Their relationship becomes disturbingly more heated as they endlessly alternate between being the victim and the perpetrator in the pedophilic scenario. Mia just wants someone to love her (she certainly does not receive any positive affirmations from her mother or sister) while Connor is just hoping to get those damn sweat pants off of Mia.

Trapped on the wrong side of the unforgiving glass walls of lower-class Britain (most likely the fish tank to which the film’s title refers), Mia’s pent-up anger and frustration is busting at the seams. The question is whether or not Mia will ever be strong enough to shatter the glass in order to break free of the inherent restraints of her family’s class. Cramped in a claustrophobic 4×3 ratio, director of photography Robbie Ryan purposefully and effectively encages (and enrages) Mia’s energies – as she quite literally pounds against the outer frames of the screen while she dances.

This is definitely not a healthy environment for a 15-year old (and especially her younger sister) to be raised – no hope, no future and no love. It is overtly apparent that Joanne only cares about getting drunk and getting laid; her children are pesky annoyances that continually get in the way of her fun. Joanne’s feeble efforts to keep Mia away from the bumping and grinding parties going on in their living room at night is most likely due to sexual competition, not good parenting (it is obvious that Joanne does not care about keeping Mia and Tyler away from alcohol).

Such a grim picture, but we do glimpse some goodness and naivety within Mia. For one – she is fascinated by, and repeatedly attempts to free, a dying old horse helplessly chained in a parking lot alongside a highway. But, Mia has her excessively evil moments as well – such as the harrowing sequence on the Essex marshes with Connor’s young daughter Keira (Sydney Mary Nash).

Fish Tank’s bravado is a hard kick in the balls for all of the sexist and demeaning jokes that have been made about Essex women over the years. Despite Mia’s penchant for liters of booze and profane tirades, she exudes a relentless and spirited will to do better for herself. Mia is motivated not by role models or the support of friends and family, but solely by the hope that there is something better out there than what she currently has.

First-timer Jarvis gives a bitterly honest lead performance, one that is a schizophrenic (or at least hormonal instability) mix of tenacity, meanness and fragility. The character of Mia exudes so many emotions in so little time – yet Jarvis ties them all together so authentically and effortlessly. The greatest compliment to an actor is to say that they did not appear to be acting – and Jarvis is not portraying Mia, she is Mia.

Admittedly, I did not enjoy much of the music per se but the soundtrack of Fish Tank is flawless nonetheless. Not only do the songs fit the characters and mood of the film like a glove, but the lyrics of the songs provide greater meaning and depth to the onscreen events. In some instances, the song lyrics literally become part of the dialogue as if the singer was an omnipotent narrator. Fish Tank is proof of one of the great potentials of soundtracks – the use of lyrical songs to work with and advance the narrative of the film.

Fish Tank scored the Prix du Jury at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Andrea Arnold won Best Director and Katie Jarvis won Most Promising Newcomer at the 2009 British Independent Film Awards.

Rating: 8.5/10

http://www.rantrave.com/Rave/Film-Review-Fish-Tank.aspx


Rave
Film Review: Fish Tank
Posted 13 hours ago|0 comments|39 views

Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold, Michael Fassbender, Katie Jarvis, film review
Written by
Ian Forbes
San Diego, CA

Finally hitting theaters stateside is the recent winner of the BAFTA Best British Film Award, "Fish Tank". Written and directed by Andrea Arnold, the film is about a 15 year-old girl spinning out of control, living in a situation that only makes her spin faster. Think "Thirteen" but without a mother who wants to make things right.

Casting a film like this is one of the most challenging aspects, as finding an actress to both embody chaos engender sympathy is difficult. Arnold was resolved to cast people with little to no acting experience and discovered her lead character (Katie Jarvis) arguing with her boyfriend at a train station. This lack of formal training allowed for a very believable character; a volatile, tempestuous girl looking for happiness but finding little but disappointment. Perhaps the only area where casting Jarvis worked against the film was her lack of dance experience. The character takes a lot of pride in her dancing and it's clear that this budding actress isn't going to win "So You Think You Can Dance" - however, as awkward as some of the early scenes can be because of this, it does work overall once more of the character is developed throughout the film.

Of course, Jarvis' performance wouldn't seem nearly as impressive if the other actors around her weren't up to the task. Kierston Wareing, playing her mother, is the quintessential example of a woman who had kids too young and isn't able to recognize when it's time to stop partying and start being responsible. Blaming her is too easy and almost unavoidable but doesn't acknowledge that there's most likely a cycle of bad decisions that's happening. Rebecca Griffiths plays the younger sister and does so with a ferocious and almost reckless abandon (swearing, smoking, drinking). The entire social scene around these three women is a self-perpetuating trap and the question of the film is if any of them can break free.

To do so for Jarvis however, she must first navigate the waters of Michael Fassbender - her mother's new boyfriend. At first, she hopes that he will prove to be a stabilizing influence on the family. However, there's a growing attraction between the two and as his own personal boundaries won't win any ethical or moral awards, the resulting actions throw Jarvis' world for a loop. What began as another tale of teenage infatuation gone wrong takes a turn and a series of poor, impulsive decisions make for some of the most tense moments on-screen in years. It's at this point that Arnold's visions pays off, where the audience truly realizes that Jarvis' character is capable of anything because she's got nothing more to lose.

Fassbender plays his part wonderfully, showing off his character's flaws but always keeping it right on the edge of something sympathetic. As we find out more about him, some of the poor decisions are given context - though the actual implications for what he will do in the future might only sink in well after you've left the theater and cause you to wonder about any sympathy you felt during the film.

Standard coming-of-age films are normally quite safe and skim the surface of harsher reality, here Arnold has taken off the blinders and plunged us into a disturbing situation but thanks to her direction, a good script and a remarkable performance by Jarvis, we never stop caring for the main character. This was reminiscent of an excellent Australian film from 2005, "Somersault", and despite a few moments that feel a bit out of place, "Fish Tank" is a thought provoking story of a girl looking to find her place in the world - a 4 out of 5.

- This review courtesy of The Sobering Conclusion.

http://wearemoviegeeks.com/2010/03/review-fish-tank/

Mar 5, 2010

Posted by Travis in General News, Review | Comments (0)
Review: FISH TANK

Being a teenager. Finding a place in the world for one’s self. Developing a sense of identity. Discovering that the world is not all peaches and cream. Growing up is an eye-opening experience and can prove to be a real bitch. 15-year old Mia Williams learns these lessons the hard way in the indie drama FISH TANK.

Writer and director Andrea Arnold (RED ROAD) takes the audience into the life of Mia Williams, a teenager living in lower class neighborhood of London with her single mother and little sister. FISH TANK is an intimate, often painfully realistic portrait of a girl trying to find her place in the world.

Mia (Katie Jarvis) is a skinny but tough teen with street smarts and a sharp tongue. She’s not a textbook teenage girl, part tomboy and part rebel. The other girls in the neighbor hood hang together, seething pop culture, but Mia keeps mostly to herself. She’s a loaner and a little bit of a hypocrite.

Even though Mia mocks and bashes the other girls for “trying” to dance, Mia secretly hones her own dance skills in private. She yearns to dance like the fly girls she sees on television in the R&B music videos, but she’s embarrassed by her interest and has low self-esteem about her own abilities.

Mia’s mother Sophie (Charlotte Collins) is a single mom, a bit of a fraternizing tramp that spends her time partying and passing out drunk. She’s a terrible mother, verbally abusing and neglecting her children that have picked up the habit. Not only does Mia have a filthy, smart mouth, her little sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths) does as well.

When Sophie brings home a new man named Connor, vaguely resembling the Matthew McConaughey type — played by Michael Fassbender (300, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS) – Mia initially finds herself frustrated but curious about the man. Over time, she finds herself confused by her anger and curiosity. This relationship slowly builds an uncomfortable sexual tension, blurred somewhere between the lines of an adoptive father and an inappropriate flirtation, all outside of Sophie’s radar.

FISH TANK is a compelling tale of teenage angst, externalizing Mia’s internally withdrawn search for purpose. The story is solid, but the pace of the film unfortunately suffers a bit from the two-hour running time. Some of the scenes of Mia’s home life were longer than necessary, despite their individual effectiveness. Fortunately, the final quarter of the film evokes the most powerful reaction in place of an earlier ending.

The little details of FISH TANK are what make the movie stand out. Mia’s obsession with saving an ailing horse from a neighboring lot speaks volumes about her true nature, but her interactions with other people, even her family, speak volumes about her insecurity. As her enigmatic relationship with Connor develops, Mia learns a great deal about herself and the world, but at a devastating personal price.

Katie Jarvis gives an enjoyable, honest performance. Mia is a lit fuse — a teenager on the edge — but deep down, she’s a good kid. Her rebellious, righteous side emerges fully, if not recklessly, in the end as she uncovers some hard truths and realizations about the world, becoming the catalyst for the transition from teenager to the first step of becoming an adult.

The final shot of the film is simply and perfectly selected, serving as a metaphor for Mia’s giant step from being an ignorant child to that of being a woman on the road to adulthood. FISH TANK has some difficult subject matter, but it’s handled respectfully and intelligently.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

http://www.freep.com/article/20100305/ENT01/3050327/1322/Riveting-Fish-Tank-offers-an-unforgettable-view-of-a-British-teenagers-dead-end-life

Posted: March 5, 2010
Riveting 'Fish Tank' offers an unforgettable view of a British teenager's dead-end life

BY CARY DARLING
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Mia is a girl on her way to a serious date with trouble.

In the very first few minutes she's on the screen in "Fish Tank," writer-director Andrea Arnold's frank and powerful glimpse of a dead-end British teenage life, she's screaming on the phone to a friend, head-butting another girl because she doesn't like the way she's dancing and getting into a tussle with her struggling, drunken single mom. "The Waltons" it's not.

Yet, as portrayed by Katie Jarvis, who's in nearly every scene, Mia is compulsively watchable and unforgettable. And she would be utterly depressing, too, if not for the faint ray of light provided by hip-hop dance, the one thing that seems to bring pleasure to her otherwise dreary life.

Well, that, and her mom's new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender), with whom she shares a love of African-American music, though his tastes run more to vintage Bobby Womack and hers are closer to the rapper Nas. The two tread dangerous ground as they grow closer in their dreary world of bleak housing projects and suffocating hopelessness.

Though it might be criticized for utilizing predictable elements -- broken home, abusive mom, rudderless teens -- "Fish Tank" fashions its story with a commanding sense of urgency. Some have compared it to "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" for obvious reasons, but Arnold shows off a far grittier style, making "Fish Tank" feel closer to a documentary.

Jarvis, making her screen debut, is absolutely riveting. And the stellar soundtrack, featuring old R&B and contemporary hip-hop, becomes an integral part of the production's rough texture. It never seems extraneous.

"Fish Tank" has won a theater full of awards overseas, including the Jury Prize at Cannes. It deserves to do equally as well on this side of the pond.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/reviews.nsf/movie/story/92C49A3D8C5AF09E862576DC000187F6?OpenDocument

Minimalist 'Fish Tank' is a raw slice of life
By Joe Williams
POST-DISPATCH FILM CRITIC
03/05/2010

Two of the most provocative films of the past year have been dramas about an English girl's coming of age, directed by 50-ish women who've been working under the radar for the past decade.

While Lone Scherfig's "An Education" is an Oscar nominee for best actress, best adapted screenplay and best picture, it was bested at last month's British Academy Awards by "Fish Tank," a raw slice of life by Andrea Arnold ("Red Road").

Arnold has already won an Oscar, for her 2003 short "Wasp," about a pub-crawling single mother. "Fish Tank" is like a feature-length sequel in which the latchkey kid struggles to break free.

Whereas "An Education" has made an international star out of Carey Mulligan, who cut her teeth in prestige miniseries, "Fish Tank" features a nonactress whom Arnold discovered when the teen was arguing with her boyfriend on a subway platform. Katie Jarvis has a natural presence that matches the unsentimental minimalism of the film.

Tough, 15-year-old Mia (Jarvis) lives with her boozy blond mom and neglected younger sister in one of those English high-rise tenements we know from the films of Mike Leigh. Yet unlike Leigh, Arnold lets no light or humor slip into this dark domain. Mia dreams of dancing in a hip-hop revue, but she's like a scrawny horse she tries to free from a nearby junkyard: chained to her circumstances.

Although it's shot in handheld, neo-realist style, "Fish Tank" is prone to some obvious ironies, like a poster of palm trees in the family's living room and the recurring refrains of "California Dreamin'."‰" That's the favorite song of Colin (Michael Fassbender), the mother's hunky new boyfriend, who encourages Mia to pursue her dancing.

Apparently, even a female director can't tell a teen girl's story without creepy sexual undertones; but after the inevitable happens, Arnold devises an unbearably tense ending that keeps us guessing.

Fortunately, "Fish Tank" feeds us more than crumbs and leaves us feeling like we've come up for air.

http://austinist.com/2010/03/05/upcoming_releases_alice_alice_alice.php

Fish Tank
Your best bet out of this weekend's offerings, Fish Tank is the story of an Essex housing project teen named Mia (the raw newcomer Katie Jarvis), hurtling through a hopelessly bleak life at break-neck pace. She's been kicked out of school and is ridiculed by her peers. Her mother is a chain-smoking lush who occasionally brings home strange men, one of which (Michael Fassbender, most recently of Inglourious Basterds) pushes the boundaries of their already delicate relationship. As the title implies, the view of this harrowing world is seen completely through Mia's eyes, so we'll never quite know the reality the other characters live in as she alternately dances and punches her way through her own personal hell. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film, Academy Award winning director Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank looks to be a film that will stick with you long after the credits roll.

http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-04/things-to-do/movies-things-to-do/alice-in-wonderland-latino-film-fest-movie-reviews-news

“Fish Tank”

The English director and writer Andrea Arnold says an image first motivated her to make “Fish Tank.” Which one, I am not sure, but her seemingly casual film is a truly envisioned stream of fly-by images (also credit photographer Robbie Ryan). Arnold freshens the old coming-of-age theme with hand-held shots of almost scattershot poise, wonderful accents of color and also natural creatures who seem to mutely accuse the humans of bad living: an old horse, a dying fish, birds, a dragonfly, pit bulls, even a tree swaying in wind from the Thames estuary.

It’s Essex, east of London, with intrusions of coastal water among the crudely suburbanized villages, industrial sprawl and housing projects that scream of Le Corbusier bound, gagged and graffiti’d. This is where Mia (played by untrained, “found” actor Katie Jarvis) prowls and snoops and dreams at age 15. Her dad is long gone, and Mia often vents anger at her slovenly mom (Kierston Wareing), who is around 30 and has become a party pig. Mia, who is bright, furtive, wary of school and prone to pilfering drinks, also shares love-hate with a scrappy kid sister (appealing Rebecca Griffiths).

The “simple” story, like a snapshot flow of lives both cramped and rootless, turns on mom’s new catch, Connor (Michael Fassbender, so good in “Hunger”). He vaguely moves in, both gracious and intrusive. This fun stud encourages Mia’s ragged attempts at dancing, with sexy nudges and his favorite song, “California Dreamin.’” All smiles and secrets, he is about halfway to being an L.A. dream himself. And so sex pressure builds, and the way that it does is less teased for shock than in “Kids” and “Thirteen.” Mia is closer to the desperate Russian girl in the 2003 marvel “Lilja 4-Ever.”

We sense that Mia (unlike sad Lilja) is fit for survival. Arnold never lets her down as an involving, developing character. The movie echoes the Brit-prole film dramas of Ken Loach, yet probably required a woman to make it. Both visually and emotionally, this is a movingly coherent plunge into a rudely tested life. The time is probably gone when a British film about a wayward teen girl can have the wide impact of “A Taste of Honey” (1961), but “Fish Tank” deserves comparable attention. (Opens Friday, Landmark Ken Cinema; unrated) ★★★1/2

http://advancedportfoliokristian.blogspot.com/2010/03/textual-analysis-of-film-poster-fisk.html

Friday, 5 March 2010
Textual Analysis of Film Poster - Fisk Tank.
FISHTANK
Director – Andrea Arnold
Distributed by – IFC films
Synopsis: Everything changes for 15yr old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.

Starring - Michael Fassbender, Harry Treadaway, Kierston Wareing, Jason Maza, Katie Jarvis, Jack Gordon, Charlotte Collins, Brooke Hobby, Chelsea Chase

The poster for the film Fish Tank is very unique and skilfully adapts a range of hidden techniques to expose to the audience the films qualities and features such as the genre, characters and narrative.

The title ‘Fish Tank’ is a clever metaphor, playing on the contemplation of looking out to the other side but cannot get there or escape, which links into the film and the girl’s circumstances. Furthermore which relates to the image of her looking out of a window, as if she cannot reach it. The simple eyelevel shot from the camera work of the girl connects to the realistic theme and highlights her expression more. Her positioning to me gives out the emotion of loneliness. Her expression is serious and she seems to be preoccupied and isolated. Her character is shown to be a very stereotypical working class girl who from just her appearance you can estimate her background and characteristics. For example, the gold hoop earrings and the slight greasy hair. I think her wearing black clothing is a symbol of her unhappiness, and as the shot doesn’t show her full body and the clothing isn’t in any way revealing, there are no sexual connotations to it which reveals more about her character.

The location which the poster shows isn’t exposed clearly, but I would guess it is a council block of flats, due to the graffiti and grimy settings. The wall is ripped, there’s food smeared across it and the graffiti of the pink heart uncovers a few details. For example it may inform the audience more of her age and be evidential that there’s a good chance she’s rebellious.
The tagline ‘Live, love and give as good as you get’ is a very strong willed and powerful sentence, giving the audience an insight to the nature of the film. All the writing within the poster is made up of pink and blue text, this could indicate the film is aimed at both genders. There is a few alliterations used in the poster, for example “powerful and poignant” and “live and love”, which makes the poster even more vivid.

There are references of feedback from Total Film, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Independent and more. There are no tabloid newspapers, only broadsheets. This indicates a specific audience - well educated middle class - and although a small readership it shows us the film’s target audience. It also specifies the awards the film has won, both British and European awards, which to film literate people, will be very impressive.

Fish Tank also has another poster used to advertise their film. This poster is different to an extent to the first one. The image of the same girl is very contrasting, as it reveals more of her body (with some of her stomach exposed) as a medium shot, which is obviously airbrushed, which doesn‘t seem to match with the social realism theme. She has more makeup on and is wearing a hoody, which emphasises the stereotypical character she is labelled as and seems to gives her more attitude and status. But as it is a low angled shot, I would say she looks a lot more vulnerable here. The location is a lot more obvious here, as you can see the urban city landscape in the background. The posters image is set up in complete contrast to the first poster. In this one it seems as if she has left her past behind and has escaped from it into the big wide world - as if she has escaped the fish tank.

http://www.austincinephile.com/2010/03/05/opportunities-for-the-week-of-35-311/

The Dobie, FISH TANK
Andrea Arnold’s latest film Fish Tank arrives in Austin on a wave of highly positive critical reaction. Arnold has already proven herself to be a promising filmmaker with her Academy Award-winning short film Wasp and her debut feature Red Road, the latter of which can be seen right now on Netflix Instant Streaming (recommended, it’s a great movie). Returning to the impoverished British slums that she explored in these earlier films, Arnold’s new movie follows fifteen-year-old troublemaker Mia, played by the amazing newcomer Katie Jarvis, as she yearns to escape from her neighborhood and her irresponsible mother, who barely seems older than Mia herself. That is, until Mom brings home a dashing new boyfriend, played by Michael Fassbender. Suddenly, for Mia, things are getting a little more interesting around the house. Although a full review will be posted soon on this site, Austin Cinephile can tell you now that this is a film you do not want to miss.

http://stlouiseats.typepad.com/st_louis_eats_and_drinks_/2010/03/fish-tank.html

March 05, 2010
Fish Tank

There are overtones of "An Education" in "Fish Tank," which opens here today, but it's also fascinating to watch Andrea Arnold, another extremely talented woman film director, put a different, but equally powerful vision on a movie about a teen-age girl and a much older man.

Acting is a key factor, of course, and Arnold's primary cast of three women and two men perform with power and passion. Basically, movie belongs to Katie Jarvis, a 19-year-old portraying 15-year-old Mia to perfection. It's her first feature, and she shows the pain of a tortured adolescent, bounding from extreme joy to darkest depression in the flash of an eye. Mostly, she's in a dark mood, seeking -- well, she isn't sure exactly what she's seeking, but whenever she gets close, it slips away, or she drops it, or she hurls it as far as she can.

Mia lives in one of those anonymous, ugly, public-housing projects with her dissolute, often-drunk mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing) and a cute younger sister (Charlotte Collins) whose every other word would make parents of an earlier generation reach for the soap. Mia envies hip-hop dancers, practices moves here and there, sometimes in her room, sometimes in her dank, depressing neighborhood, like a schoolyard. She picks fights with her schoolmates. And yet, she struggles to free an aging, swaybacked horse from its chain. That attempt, however, brings her in contact with Billy (Harry Treadaway), whose dream is to restore a Volvo. These folks have rather low expectations--no Jaguars, much less Rolls-Royces, in their experiences.

And then Joanne, who seems to often follow a night of drinking by bringing a man to the house, brings Connor (Michael Fassbender). Unlike many of her late-night companions, he seems like a rather kind, caring person, and his acting is flawless and with fine range (he was the English movie critic in "Inglorious Basterds" and will portray Rochester in a new "Jane Eyre" next year). In a lovely scene, he takes all three of them fishing, though I think a journey in an automobile with that trio of harridans would be more than a person could stand.

What happens next is rather predictable, and it's followed by a scene that is too long and intense, the only time that Arnold loses some of her tight control.

This is a strong, terrific movie, only the second for Arnold and the first for Jarvis. Here's a chance to see some early work by people who could become household names.

"The Fish Tank" opens today at the Tivoli.

http://www.sdentertainer.com/arts/fish-tank-movie-review/

Fish Tank – A Film filled with Cruel Beauty directed by Andrea Arnold

Posted by Robert Patrick on Friday, March 5, 2010

Mia (Katie Jarvis) isn’t a congenial 15-year-old girl. And while some of her peers may be wrapped in saccharine, bubbly as a spritzer, and without a hiccup in their buoyant step, Mia is the antithesis of adolescent glee.

Teenage angst always exists, but here, in the world of director Andrea Arnold, the archetypical duality of perpetual confusion and intermittent happiness are traded in for total emotional dystopia: Mia has the demeanor of a nineteen-twenties bare knuckle boxer. Not average for a teen girl, but neither is her mercurial life.

Mia’s home is so checkered with yellowed walls and irresponsible parenting that, if someone looked in on her abysmal childhood, an outside party would cringe. Even Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths), her younger sister, curses with the acute consistency of an adolescent Joe Pesci.

The tone of “Fish Tank” is, because of its murmuring dependency on pulpy depression, often tiring and exasperating to watch. Often drowsy blues and omnipotent grays staple themselves to the walls around the film’s characters. Arnold’s examination of youthful despair, heightened by poverty and emotional abuse, is reminiscent of director Karen Moncrieff; a director whose visual work deals largely with callous relationships and decrepit social structures.

You also get the feeling that Lynne Ramsay’s “Ratcatcher,” a story about a young boy’s childhood in the rueful landscape of Glasgow, where trash sprouts from the ground like tangled flowers, was an indirect influence.

Between binge drinking cider and breaking into vacant apartments, Mia ends up meeting Connorfish-tank (Michael Fassbender), her mother’s unusually charming beau. Excavating the little civility Mia’s household has, Connor begins a skewed friendship with the volatile teen.

The supercharged mouthiness of Mia begins to pop and wheeze, until it almost comes to a puttering stop, after Connor’s seemingly innocuous tutelage begins. As expected, Mia falls for him, and some rather serpentine twists transpire.

Mia’s primary interest in “Fish Tank” is a interest for urban dancing, which exists to fill up the hollow concave in her life with echoes of hope. In her times of vulnerability, destitute and malnourished, Mia plunks in old school hip-hop CDs into her boombox. Many times her face is sheathed by the hood of a sweatshirt, her movements making the fabric of her attire flimsily bob up and down, as she folds her body in elaborate contortions.

The scene, one of questionable resonance on paper, proves to be exceptional filmmaking; plumes of clouds quell a furious sun in the distance, as our young protagonist attempts to ignite something equally as bright in her own soul.

The soundtrack of “Fish Tank” rattles with a jazzy hubris, inundating the unfiltered scenes of anxiety with songs from Gangstarr and Nas. The excessive snare and zipping patterns of rhyme create, like an informal glaze or decoupage, a way of encapsulating the only immediate structure in her life.

“Fish Tank” is a wholly internal experience that, days after watching it, grows on you in intangible ways. The film is filled with cruel beauty, restrained electricity, brooding melancholy. Andrea Arnold has truly crafted one of the more resounding pictures of the year thus far. At times difficult to watch, this picture is fluid poetry.

3.5/5

“Fish Tank” is now playing at Landmark’s Ken Cinema

4061 Adams Avenue
San Diego, CA 92116-2505
(619) 283-3227

http://kamcnally.blogspot.com/2010/03/film-review-fish-tank.html

Saturday, 6 March 2010
Film Review: Fish Tank.

A film by Andrea Arnold, set about in our gritty undergrowths of lower class tower blocks full of those frightening hooded chavs comes this film about life, love and how they both can be a bitch.

Its brilliantly directed and the cinematographer captures some beyond spectacular shots making this film one of the best British indie flicks I've seen.

No friggin wonder it won a BAFTA, 2 British Independent Film Awards for both Director Andrea Arnold and best newcomer for Katie Jarvis, a Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize and 10 other awards including 4 London Critics Circle Film Awards.

For a popular, in crowd reference, its reminiscent of recent British drama like Skins and Misfits with its free for all emotion and grit that Americans like to hide behind a smile, many an edit and a 'Happy Ever After'. Without giving too much away, Mia (Katie Jarvis - who I will come on to later) is a head-butting, cider-drinking, foul-mouthed, tracksuit-wearing delinquent who's life changes when her mum find herself an above-average boyfriend (well for her anyway).

Katie Jarvis' performance is outstanding, along with her kid sister who just about steals the limelight every scene shes in, and gives the film that air of 'realism'. It doesnt seem acted, it seems as if we are literally spying in on some girls life. I can relate to people like her, I'm sure we've all met an Adidas loving chav at some point in our lives. Jarvis isnt just playing Mia, she IS Mia... (not to mention the fact she actually comes from essex and gave birth to a child at 18) and it just makes it all that more shocking when that imperative scene comes along that shoves us down a whole different path than what we expected to be treading when the starting credits rolled.

Michael Fassbender, with a pre-Hollywood role, was magnificent also making you believe him and trust in him alongside with Mia which is also essential to that turnpoint scene that rocks your belief system. I'm looking forward to all of his future work and hoping that he keeps that emotion and, well, 'real' acting while he runs along the Hollywood train.

I highly recommend it to anyone. Just for British kudos really.
Posted by kamcnally at 15:25

http://moviemusingswithafilmstudent.blogspot.com/2010/03/fish-tank-and-hunger.html

Fish Tank: My friends Emma, Madeline and I trekked to the Angelika to view this film, after many weeks of eagerly awaiting it's arrival! When we walked out of the theater, the entire walk home consisted of very stimulating discussion about the film! We were shaken to our cores by the subject matter and the intensity of the performances. Katie Jarvis, who portrayed unruly teen Mia, really caught my attention. As did Michael Fassbender, and not just because of his flawless figure! There were so many shocking, envelope-pushing moments in this film that you're bound to be affected. If you're not, it's arguable you don't have emotions. Similar to City Island, the family dynamic was the focus, but in a very different way. It's in Precious territory with the abusive mother, but not quite as extreme. This movie will generate a reaction out of you. It will make you want to talk about it for days.

Rating: A