Fish Tank

Fifteen-year-old Mia lives with her mother and younger sister in an Essex housing project. Their cramped apartment is littered with beer cans and booze bottles, but Mia aspires to rise above her surroundings. When her mother's charming new boyfriend, Connor, comes into the picture, everything changes. From the moment Connor appears onscreen, his scenes with Mia are soaked with a forbidden sensuality. Sporting a hoodie and an attitude, first-timer Katie Jarvis displays a head-butting, firecracker personality in the role of Mia. Writer and director Andrea Arnold spotted non-actor Jarvis arguing with her boyfriend on a subway platform and propositioned her for the part. Ably shouldering the legacy of Ken Loach, "Fish Tank" displays Arnold's trademark gritty style making this an unsentimental look at urban life from within the social-realist tradition. Additionally, Arnold withheld the complete script from the actors, giving them only isolated segments shortly before filming. Along with Robbie Ryan's handheld camera, this tactic infuses the story with a fresh and immediate sense of life.ASHLEY SMITH

Cast
Michael Fassbender, Harry Treadaway, Kierston Wareing: Producer
Kees Kasander, Nick Laws: Script
Andrea Arnold: Cinematography
Robbie Ryan: Spoken language
English: Subtitle
Swedish