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Fish Tank

Fish Tank (2009)

tomatometer

90

Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 137
Fresh: 123 | Rotten: 14

Cannes Jury Prize-winner Fish Tank is gritty British realism at its very best, with flawless performances from newcomer Kate Jarvis, and Michael Fassbender.

94

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 33
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 2

Cannes Jury Prize-winner Fish Tank is gritty British realism at its very best, with flawless performances from newcomer Kate Jarvis, and Michael Fassbender.

audience

78

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 9,752

My Rating

Movie Info

A mother and daughter find themselves locked in an ugly battle over the same man in this drama from writer and director Andrea Arnold. Mia Williams (Katie Jarvis) is 15 years old and lives in a shabby apartment block with her mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing), and younger sister, Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths). Mia is a reckless and rebellious teenager who frequently argues with her mother and sister and has run afoul of the authorities at school, leading to her being suspended. With plenty of time

Unrated, 2 hr. 4 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Andrea Arnold

Mar 22, 2010

$0.2M

IFC

All Critics (138) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (125) | Rotten (14) | DVD (5)

Fish Tank may begin as a patch of lower-class chaos, but it turns into a commanding, emotionally satisfying movie, comparable to such youth-in-trouble classics as The 400 Blows.

July 7, 2010 Full Review Source: New Yorker | Comment
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A bold new entry in the long-standing British tradition of disquieting social realism.

July 4, 2010 Full Review Source: NPR | Comment
NPR
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The characters are guarded, and as we come to understand them scene by scene, they become ever harder to sort into convenient categories of hero and villain.

March 18, 2010 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Writer-director Andrea Arnold, working in British lower-class realism, still finds wondrous moments of connection in Mia's life.

March 5, 2010 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Writer-director Andrea Arnold has created something so real and raw, you may come away with a twinge of guilty voyeurism, a sense of peering too closely and impolitely into other people's lives.

March 5, 2010 Full Review Source: Associated Press | Comment
Associated Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film swims in an anguish not solely the result of Mia's coming of age -- and yet, it surfaces for air in ways compelling and uncompromising.

February 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Fish Tank is a very strong effort at every level, and should signal great things to come for all involved. Bloody good movie.

August 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Cinemania | Comment

(...) Un retrato honesto y descarnado de una adolescencia sin rumbo y sin guía, atento a pequeños detalles que van conformando el mundo y las tensas vicisitudes de sus personajes.

June 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Uruguay Total

The film becomes a caricature of arthouse miserabilism, which asserts that the only truths are the ugly ones.

March 9, 2011 Full Review Source: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema | Comment
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

The film is remarkable for its depth. It's not drilling in a message about the hopelessness of poverty, nor is it stylising the lifestyle of those living on council estates.

March 1, 2011 Full Review Source: What Culture | Comment

Reveals the incidental arrival of the first trickles of emerging maturity.

February 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | Comment
Window to the Movies

Suffocation takes many forms in Fish Tank, the most notable being romantic promises written in water.

February 21, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Plenty of films have presented us with the Angry Young Man but not so many with the Angry Young Woman ...Andrea Arnold does her bit to help correct this imbalance with Fish Tank...

January 3, 2011 Full Review Source: Playback:stl | Comment
Playback:stl

Stark, powerful drama for older teens and adults.

December 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Mia is not treated like an overly clever ingénue (as in An Education) or as a pious, almost impossibly well-adjusted soul (as in Precious) or worse, as Bella Swan.

October 21, 2010 Full Review Source: Quickflix | Comment

The film's rough patches are ... considerably smoothed over by its performers.

July 5, 2010 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Lessons of Darkness

Performances are excellent but this is an exceptionally grim experience.

June 2, 2010 Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | Comment
At the Movies (Australia)

Andrea Arnold seems to be trying hard to emulate the hard edged work of her English realist masters, but she is selfish and uncaring about her audience

May 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

It's a tough film and while the ground covered does not bring any surprises, the journey we take is filled with gritty realism and the outcomes realistic

May 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

One of the best British films of recent years, Fish Tank marks a leap forward from Arnold's first feature, the contrived Red Road.

May 28, 2010 Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | Comment
The Age (Australia)

Arnold is still a director to watch: the film is fragile, and not faultless: but while Streetdance 3D is raging uptown, do take a look at this one to understand, among other things, how very personal and expressive dance can be for the young.

May 28, 2010 Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | Comment
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

Not finely polished like a big budget film, Fish Tank's ability to connect with audiences is reflected in the multiple awards the film, its director and its star have received.

May 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Trespass | Comment
Trespass
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Fish Tank

Another fantastically gritty drama from Andrea Arnold. Katie Jarvis was perfect casting as someone with no training, her schizophrenic approach is thrilling and yet quite typical of certain youth these days, making this a very believable drama. Post modern Neo-realism without all the existential nonsense, the way all

November 15, 2011
SirPant

Super Reviewer

Director Andrea Arnold's debut "Red Road" was a raw and vivid portrayal of a working class Glasgow area. Now she takes us to a working class Essex area with just the same impact and realism. Ostracised by her friends and excluded from school, Mia (Katie Jarvis) is a lairy teenager living in a high-rise block with her

July 7, 2011
MrMarakai

Super Reviewer

    1. Tyler: [runs after car, shouts to Mia inside] Don't forget to text me! Say hello to the Welsh for me!
    – Submitted by rob g (13 months ago)
    1. Mia: Can you give Keeley a message for me? Tell her I think her old man's a cunt!
    – Submitted by rob g (13 months ago)

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