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Thread: Andrea Arnold: Fish Tank (2009)

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    Andrea Arnold: Fish Tank (2009)


    KATIE JARVIS IN FISH TANK




    Andrea Arnold: Fish Tank (2009)

    Hardscrabble liberation of a teenage girl

    Review by Chris Knipp

    Also published on Cinescene.


    Fish Tank's bare-bones portrait of an obstreperous girl seduced by her mother's boyfriend blows away the similarly themed An Education with its simple authentic feel and beautiful images. Katie Jarvis as Mia certainly equals Carry Mulligan's performance as Jenny in An Education -- and then some, because this movie has an authenticity Lone Scherfig's theatrical period piece never achieves. Andrea Arnold's second film is a triumph of realistic film-making in the English tradition of Loach, Leigh, Shane Meadows and all the others. It never pushes an agenda and never hits a wrong note. Its simple, seamless technique makes all its basic elements come forth clearly and distinctly.

    Mia (Jarvis, outstanding in her first film role) is a combative, scrawny, but not un-pretty 15-year-old who lives with her party-hardy bleach-blond single mum Joanne (Kierston Wareing) and astonishingly foul-mouthed little sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths) on a noisy Essex council estate. She's neglected and ostracized, but seeks company. Joanne brings home a handsome, chiseled Irishman called Conner (Michael Fassbinder) and from the minute he comes downstairs, shirtless, to make tea, it's obvious Mia is interested. He's also polite and nice with her. But unlike the slimebag played by Peter Sarsgaard in Lone Scherfig's slick An Education, he doesn't seem a charmer, only a decent fellow who answers Mia's feistiness with kindness.

    Mia's life is simple. She's been kicked out of school. She likes to drink and she's upset about a horse chained up across the field, and likes to practice hip hop or street dancing in an empty flat upstairs. The film is equally uncomplicated, framed in old-fashioned square TV style aspect ratio (1.33:1), without background music. The rhythm is established by short scenes, ending with the sound of a car or a door slamming or Mia running off somewhere. This is film-making so authentic and minimal it may seem banal. After a while, but maybe not till it has run its substantial (124-minute) length, you may realize how well the people emerge because nothing has been allowed to get in the way of them. Nothing is prettied up here. But there's no miserablism either. The skies aren't cloudy. Though this is kitchen sink social realism, the clear, bright images by cinematographer Robbie Ryan, avoiding the graininess of a conventional vérité style, really sing.

    In fact the flat Mia lives in is bright and pastel-y, some key scenes are shot through red or amber filters, and outdoors the skies are luminous. There is no gray here. Events don't turn tragic, though when Mia tries to take revenge on Conner for abandoning her and her mum after he's seduced her, it seems for a little while that they might. And all three females in the house are equally feisty and indomitable. So after the seduction, and after a tacky dance audition goes nowhere, it's not surprising that Mia still seems destined to survive and even thrive.

    There are a few key sequences, each deftly shot. Early on there is an outing where Conner, who is a security guard at a large warehouse and owns a car, takes Joanne, Mia, and Tyler out to a marshland stream on an outing. Somehow a camera has been fitted inside the car and shows us the four people, and their expressions when Conner, a soul music fan, introduces them all, but especially Mia, to his favorite song, Bobby Womack singing "California Dreamin'."

    At the stream, Conner shows he can catch a fish with his bare hands. He persuades Mia to wade into the water to coral the fish toward him. Joanne and Tyler see her willingness to do this as another sign of her outsider wildness. She cuts her ankle doing it, and Conner carries her. This creates an intimacy that changes their relationship.

    Her concern for the tethered horse leads her to meet the horse owner's milder brother Billy (Harry Treadaway), who takes her to a car junkyard to find a spare part for a Volvo. He finds it and says she's brought him luck. This connection saves her from being mired in the other ones, and from being bogged down by what happens with Conner. The sequence in which she tracks him down and finds out his secrets is disturbing, but neither Mia nor the film has any time for sentimentality or complaints.

    The film's focus on a relatively unformed character is made more interesting because of the imminence of danger and adventure in Mia's day-to-day life. Perhaps she's not so unformed after all, since she's so able to live by her wits. In this case, unlike An Education, she has no middle-class support system to protect -- or betray -- her. Instead she apparently runs away with Billy. The final sequence is as memorable and beautiful as anything else in Fish Tank. Though it's morning Joanne is half drunk as usual, and dreamily dancing downstairs to Mia's Nas CD. Not seeming to understand Mia's departure may be decisive, Joanne just says "You better get going." Instead of a goodbye, Mia lines up beside her mum and sways to the music with her; they imitate each other's moves, then Tyler holds onto Mia's waist and tries to move with them. It's a typically simple, but magic moment, and so is Tyler's emotional goodbye outside when they both grab each other in a tight embrace and say "I hate you!" to each other.

    Arnold won her second Jury Prize at Cannes for Fish Tank; she won the same award in 2006 for her first feature film, Red Road. Fish Tank opened in the UK in September 2009, and in the US in January 2010. This one puts Andrea Arnold clearly in the first rank of contemporary English film-makers.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 02-28-2010 at 11:20 PM.

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    I loved Red Road and am looking forward to seeing this one. I will stomp on it the day (moment) it is released here.

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    I missed Red Road, though it was a hit at the SFIFF. Some critics who've seen both films say this is markedly better, so you will definitely want to see it. I wish it would get a larger audience here than it is likely to. We'll see what kind of a run it gets in the Bay Area. To begin with, it is only scheduled to run for a week in Berkeley in a special series of short runs at the biggest Landmark theater. In that context, it's interesting what Leslie Felperin says in the Variety review:

    Paradoxically, though immediately accessible to auds from the background depicted, "Fish Tank" is destined to swim only in arthouse aquariums, while likely adult-only ratings will keep teens -- who really should see this -- from getting in the door legally.

    Thematically, Felperin says, Fish Tank has some key points in common with Red Road, while its milieu is that of her celebrated earlier short film, Wasp.

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    I think that the most difficult aspect of narrative art is coming up with the "right" ending. What that is, precisely, cannot be generalized. It is something that varies according to the nature of what has led up to it. I found the ending of Red Road immensely satisfying. I was not expecting to be moved so deeply by it, but I was. The film also showcased Arnold's skills in molding performances from inexperienced actors.

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    Quote Originally Posted by oscar jubis View Post
    I think that the most difficult aspect of narrative art is coming up with the "right" ending. What that is, precisely, cannot be generalized. It is something that varies according to the nature of what has led up to it. I found the ending of Red Road immensely satisfying. I was not expecting to be moved so deeply by it, but I was. The film also showcased Arnold's skills in molding performances from inexperienced actors.
    I don't really remember the ending but what I do recall was that the film was both an intimate character study, a suspense thriller, and a comment on the loss of privacy in modern society. As I stated in my review, "The film is reminiscent of the gritty, realistic works of Ken Loach and the Dardenne Brothers, directors who balance a tough, uncompromising narrative with humor and poetic sensitivity."

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    Arnold may be particularly good at endings. But some might differ on that. I like the last scenes of Fish Tank. The dance of the three females stays in the mind. So does the "hate" hug. I should mention Arnold's 23-minute 2003 short Wasp won an Oscar. It's ending is not what you could call "satisfying." however like Fish Tank's, it has threads of hope. The little film is a slice of life that plays teasingly with time and cross-cutting to depict an irresponsible mother and her neglected kids. Its titular insect shows Arnold's tendency to be slightly obvious with symbols (the horse; the fish in Fish Tank). I saw Wasp when it was shown at the NYFF one year. Roger Ebert summaries it here and it's described in much detail here by Joe Bowman.

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    Arnold's award-winning first film, "Wasp"

    Arnold may be particularly good at endings. But some might differ on that. I like the last scenes of Fish Tank. The dance of the three females stays in the mind. So does the "hate" hug. Of course driving away with a patch of sky is conventional. I should mention Arnold's 23-minute 2003 short Wasp won an Oscar. It's ending is not what you could call "satisfying." however like Fish Tank's, it has threads of hope. The little film is a slice of life that plays teasingly with time and cross-cutting to depict an irresponsible mother and her neglected kids. Its titular insect shows Arnold's tendency to be slightly obvious with symbols (the horse; the fish in Fish Tank). I saw Wasp when it was shown at the NYFF one year. Roger Ebert summaries it here and it's described in much detail here by Joe Bowman.

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    The Dardennes link Howard sees would be a hint at why Arnold has been lionized twice at Cannes.

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    Here is my review

    FISH TANK

    Directed by Andrea Arnold (2009), 123 minutes

    The poet Rumi said, “A rose's rarest essence lives in the thorn.” The thorn is in full evidence in Andrea Arnold’s compellingly honest second feature Fish Tank, the story of a fifteen year-old girl’s struggle for self respect after having “grown up absurd” in the London projects. Fish Tank, a film that is overflowing with life, works on many levels – as a look into squalid economic and social conditions in small town Britain, as a warning to those who act impulsively and without self-control, and as a coming-of-age story that allows us to experience a genuine sense of character growth. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, the film features an astounding performance from first-time actress Katie Jarvis, a 17-year-old who was discovered by the director while having an argument with her boyfriend on an Essex train station platform.

    Set in a bleak housing project in a working class London suburb, fifteen-year-old Mia is an angry, isolated but vulnerable teen who lives with her boozy mom (Koerston Wareing) and little sister Tyler (an adorable Rebecca Griffiths). Mia has no friends and is dogged by a mean-spirited mother who makes Mo’Nique in Precious look like Mother Teresa. Filled with barely controlled rage, Mia seems uncertain as to whether she is looking for a fight or for sex. She goes from head-butting a rival on the playground to struggling to free a half-starved horse tied up in a junkyard while cozying up to the horse’s owner Billy (Harry Treadway), a gentle 19-year-old who seems genuinely interested.

    Dreaming of becoming a dancer, Mia breaks into an abandoned apartment and practices her hip-hop dance routines alone to borrowed CDs of pop music including California Dreaming, the only time when she can feel good about herself. Mia’s first taste of something resembling kindness happens when her mother brings home a sexy, shirtless Irish lover named Connor (Michael Fassbender) who works as a security guard Fassbender’s performance oscillates between the charming and the shady and we do not know who is real and who is pretend and where it will lead. Mia has more than a passing interest in him, revealed by her deep glances and facial expressions.

    When Connor lends Mia his camera to film her dancing in preparation for an audition, she uses it to spy on Connor and her mom making love. One of the loveliest scenes is when Connor carries a drunken Mia from the living room and puts her to bed, gently taking off her clothes while Mia, pretending to be asleep, sneaks an occasional peak and is obviously enjoying the moment. Although Connor’s interest in Mia appears innocent, from the time Mia cuts her foot on a family fishing trip and Connor gives her a piggy back ride to the car, tension gradually builds until it explodes in a seduction that is not only inappropriate but has serious consequences.

    Fish Tank is a strong and unpredictable film because Mia is a strong (though flawed) character who refuses to allow her miserable circumstances to control her life. Arnold uses the fierce slang of the streets, overt sexual encounters, and gritty hand-held camerawork to tell an authentic story of adolescence that in lesser hands might have recycled genre clichés, provided a falsely uplifting message, or offered a sentimentalized view of poverty. That the film opens the door long enough to provide a breath of fresh air once again tells us that life can be governed by what is possible rather than what is reasonable and Fish Tank, instead of becoming another sordid study of pathology, becomes an exhilarating dance of liberation.

    GRADE: A
    "They must find it hard, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority" Gerald Massey

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    I tend to agree wholeheartedly, but I might say a bit more about Fassbinder's character and also about the visuals. I shouldn't have missed Red Road. I'll be watching for Andrea Arnold's next effort.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Knipp View Post
    I tend to agree wholeheartedly, but I might say a bit more about Fassbinder's character and also about the visuals. I shouldn't have missed Red Road. I'll be watching for Andrea Arnold's next effort.
    Thanks. I'm not sure what else to say about Connor and I prefer to keep my reviews under 600 words or thereabouts. Red Road is available on DVD by the way.
    "They must find it hard, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority" Gerald Massey

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    This is the best 2010 release I have seen so far.
    But I do not think that Mia's mom "makes Mo’Nique in Precious look like Mother Teresa". Not at all.
    And Mom's boyfriend does not come off as a villain either, by the way. (not that anyone here claims the latter) Such characterizations would have detracted from what I value most about this excellent film: evenhandedness towards the characters and a degree of subtlety.

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    This is the best 2010 release I have seen so far.
    --Oscar Jubis

    The US releases thus far are not so great, are they? But at this time of year they usually aren't.

    That's why I like goint to the Lincoln Center series that fill the gap -- Film Comment Selects, the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, and New Directors/New Films.

    Plus the SF International Film Festival is coming and I'll be back for it, April 23-May. 6, 2010.

    Definitely this among 2010 US releases to date Fish Tank rates high. I agree the adults are sympathetic, however disfunctional or dangerous for Mia. Other US releases I think are good:

    Henrik Ruben Genz: Terribly Happy (2010): droll, dark, and original.

    Jacques Audiard: A Prophet (2009): another daring and complex piece from Audiard. HIs most ambitious to date. Don't be fooled by its apparent genre limitations. His knack perhaps is for transcending genres while working within them.

    Roman Polanski: The Ghost Writer (2010): fine film in a traditional mainstream style.

    Noah Baumbach: Greenberg (2010): holds up well in the memory and justifies previous interest in Baumbach.

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    Sorry

    Quote Originally Posted by oscar jubis View Post
    This is the best 2010 release I have seen so far.
    But I do not think that Mia's mom "makes Mo’Nique in Precious look like Mother Teresa". Not at all.
    And Mom's boyfriend does not come off as a villain either, by the way. (not that anyone here claims the latter) Such characterizations would have detracted from what I value most about this excellent film: evenhandedness towards the characters and a degree of subtlety.
    Yes I apologize for that bit of exaggeration.
    "They must find it hard, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority" Gerald Massey

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    "Fish Tank" and "Red Road" are available through Netflix, though not through "streaming" Netflix
    Colige suspectos semper habitos

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