plug: Fish Tank (2009)
A beautiful story of a dead-end life in a dead-end city.
Fish Tank (2009) is the story of Mia (Katie Jarvis), a poor fifteen-year-old girl who lives with a mother and sister in the projects of Essex. Her mother has no interest in parenting, she has no friends, and there is nothing to do but constantly be reminded of how difficult and mundane and shameful life can be.
She’s an incredibly angry character. It’s strange to see such anger coming from a young girl, but it makes all the sense in the world. Not only is the world mean and cruel to begin with, but it begins to pry on her with the arrival of her mom’s new boyfriend played by Michael Fassbender in what could be his most seductive, terrifying performance in cinema.
It is quite simply a beautiful story of a dead-end life in a dead-end city. It is also chilling in its brutality. Arnold’s camerawork and direction is a masterful addition to social realism, each scene crawling forward and mundane in its pacing, lulling you to lower your guard just as it twists a knife with a fateful thrust.
I love that one of the greatest stories in cinema belongs to a poor fifteen-year-old girl with a shit situation and a bleak future. Writer/director Andrea Arnold won a BAFTA best film, Cannes’ Jury Prize, and is featured in BBC’s greatest films of the 21st century for Fish Tank, and you can watch it for free on YouTube.
For some reason the comment function isn't working for Kyle, but he texted me this and I thought I would leave it hear because it's good: “I haven’t seen this! Sounds cool. British cinema has a pretty good history of social realism in film. Saturday Night Sunday Morning is one of my favorites. A Taste Of Honey inspired many Smiths songs hahah. In the 80s Meantime was an excellent example and the films of Alan Clarke. The class systems in Britain are much better defined than they are here in the US where everyone is trained to think in aspirational ways. The loneliness of the long distance runner is another great one. Personally I really think you would love a taste of honey. So good! ”