Fish Tank

MOVIE #1,480 •🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿• 03.27.24 ᴾᵃʳᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ᴬᴺᴰᴿᴱᴬ ᴬᴿᴺᴼᴸᴰ ᴰⁱʳᵉᶜᵗᵒʳ ᶠᵒᶜᵘˢ I like how when you go into a movie cold and a famous actor who you really like shows up unexpectedly, especially in a lead role, like Michael Fassbender here. It’s like a nice treat. Here, you can have a little Michael Fassbender AS A TREAT. So nice. Thank you, movie. It's refreshing how good these first two Arnold's look visually and how they're so simply staged, filmed and edited: there's none of that garish 00s energy that seemed to infect cinema both high and low, at any budget.

Like the CCTV in Red Road, we see footage through a digital camcorder play a major role in a similar way: the idea of life viewed once removed through a screen, which feels symbolic of the defense mechanisms and shields we put up when our trust is so badly abused, when power dynamics are exploited in the worst possible way.

I could never have predicted the dark places this would go. Sometimes you think a movie will just hint at them, but when they go through with it, you're so repulsed and flooded with anxiety, it's astonishing. Of course, it has to be rendered successfully or it can be a disaster. But Arnold has a deft touch, and handles everything with care. Fassbender’s character works almost as an inverted version of Red Road’s antagonist: we’re made to like him in spite of the warning signs, and then — in a flash — he’s rendered the unrepented villain, only worthy of our scorn and disdain.

You think, for a second, that things might get even darker, but the movie actually ends on an oddly hopeful note. I loved both of these first two films and will give this one the bump to 10/10 status. Next up is her adaptation of Wuthering Heights and an American road film starring Shia LaBeouf: some fascinating turns I can’t wait to get into.

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Fish Tank is a 2009 British drama film written and directed by Andrea Arnold. The film is about Mia, a volatile and socially isolated 15-year-old, and her relationship with her mother's new boyfriend. Fish Tank was well-received and won the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It also won the 2010 BAFTA for Best British Film. It was included in the BBC's The 21st Century's 100 greatest films (compiled in 2016), ranking at no. 65 on the list. It was released on May 14, 2009.