Fish Tank is one movie I am psyched to see. Don’t know when and if it is opening here in the States. It opened in the UK last month.
Michele Landsberg was able to see the film at the Toronto Film Festival and she gives us her take:
Fish Tank, the hotly anticipated new film by British director Andrea Arnold, proved that earlier observers were absolutely justified in calling her “the new Ken Loach”. Star Katie Jarvis, playing 15 year old Mia, is a lanky, hostile teen in a fish tank of a hideous British housing project, with a pesky kid sister and a cold, bottle-blonde mum in a mini-skirt. All raw energy and rage, defiantly foul-mouthed, with a vulnerable yearning for love peeking through in unguarded moments, Mia is the explosive centre of the film, snatching moments of escape only with her earbuds and her solitary hip-hop dance practice.
Into this loveless menage comes Mum’s attractive new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender), a breath of fresh air —he has a car, a bit of bounce to his step, some humour and unexpected kindness. Almost from the first moment, there’s an uneasy and ambiguous tingle of tension between Connor and Mia. He finds her passed out from booze and carries her up to bed —a moment fraught with possible sexuality that evaporates in a surprising gesture of fatherly tenderness. But it isn’t long before the two are caught up in brief passion —before Mia makes an enraging discovery about who Connor really is.
Jarvis’s performance is stunning —raw, needy, sexual, heart-stoppingly delinquent and, in the end, hopeful against all the odds as she makes her getaway. We’ve seen this kind of film, often, about teenage boys. This seems to be the breakout year for teenage girls who, whatever obstacles are thrown at them by a heartless social system and cruelly dysfunctional families, manage to escape by the skin of their teeth.
Check out the trailer:
Ooh, this looks really interesting. Although I’ve heard about this film several times, Landsberg’s review makes it sound fascinating.
I loved Fish Tank and really hope that more of you outside the UK get to see it .
What moved me most was how the film dealt with Mia’s yearning for Connor. It is painful because you know it can’t end well but it is also beautiful. When he gives her a piggy back it is in slow motion and you can feel her blissful romanticizing. Later she looks at him through his camera which empowers the female gaze while, again almost painful in its truth, carefully illustrating her desire.
I could write and talk about this film for days it is so affecting. See it if you can.
God this looks good. As a YA writer I’m always especially interested in truthful stories about young people so this seems right up my alley. Here’s hoping Fish Tank makes it way over to this side of the pond.