Tag: Fish Tank

Top Ten Tuesday: The Best of Michael Fassbender (So Far)

Michael Fassbender is perhaps the most talented, fastest rising international star. Originally born in Germany, Fassbender has grown rapidly from being primarily a television actor into a worldly thespian of staggering proportion, garnering ecstatic praise both in Europe and the United States for his unflinching, intense performances in roles that are often controversial and extraordinarily demanding. Fassbender has received some of his breakout roles in genre films, a cinematic place that only rarely produced tremendous genre-spanning talent.

In honor of this tremendous new acting force, we’ve compiled our list of Top Ten performances from Michael Fassbender. His latest role may prove to be his most stellar, even controversial one yet. Appearing in his second film directed by Steve McQueen, SHAME has Fassbender portraying a sex addict. SHAME is opening soon, with dates varying depending on your location.

Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: The Best of Michael Fassbender (So Far)

Blu Monday: February 22, 2011

Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray

There’s a lot to choose from this week. Criterion Collection adds three, two old and one new… Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis star in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS about a powerful columnist who tries to keep his sister from marrying a jazz musician; SENSO is an Italian classic about a countess and a lieutenant who pursue a self-destructive relationship; FISH TANK tells an edgy, inspirational story of a disadvantaged British girl who longs to be a hip hop dancer. Relish in 80’s buddy cop cinema with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in 48 HOURS. Admire the melding of nature and art in RIVERS & TIDES, a documentary about Andy Goldsworthy. Have a frighteningly silly time with the “animals attack” schlockfest fan-fave BIRDEMIC. Robert Duvall shines as an eccentric recluse planning his own funeral party in GET LOW, Vincent Cassell gets dangerous as the French gangster MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT, and Christopher Nolan’s fascinating mystery MEMENTO gets a 10th anniversary treatment.

Blu-Ray for Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011

  1. 48 HOURS (1982)
  2. ALIEN VS. NINJA (2010)
  3. Andy Goldsworthy: RIVERS & TIDES
  4. BIRDEMIC (2008)
  5. DUE DATE (2010)
  6. FISH TANK: Criterion Collection (2010)
  7. GET LOW (2010)
  8. GHOST MONTH (2009)
  9. KILLSHOT (2008)
  10. THE LAST UNICORN (1982)
  11. MEMENTO: 10th Anniversary Edition (2000)
  12. MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT (2008)
  13. SENSO: Criterion Collection (1954)
  14. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS: Criterion Collection (1957)

DVD for Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011

  1. ALIEN VS. NINJA (2010)
  2. ARMLESS (2010)
  3. BIRDEMIC (2008)
  4. BLACK LIGHTNING (2008)
  5. CARMO, HIT THE ROAD (2008)
  6. CHANGE OF PLANS (2009)
  7. CLOVER (1997)
  8. DUE DATE (2010)
  9. FISH TANK: Criterion Collection (2010)
  10. GET LOW (2010)
  11. GHOST MONTH (2009)
  12. HAUNTED CASINO (2007)
  13. THE KILLING JAR (2010)
  14. KINGS OF PASTRY (2009)
  15. LAST TRAIN HOME (2009)
  16. LEAVING (2009)
  17. LEGACY (1975)
  18. LEMMY: 49% Motherf**ker, 51% Son of a Bitch (2010)
  19. LONDON IN THE RAW (1964)
  20. MASSILLON
  21. MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT (2008)
  22. MIDSUMMER MADNESS (2007)
  23. ONE WEEK JOB (2010)
  24. Alexander Kluge’s PATRIOT
  25. PURPLE SEA (2011)
  26. ROAD, MOVIE (2009)
  27. SEE WHAT I’M SAYING (2010)
  28. SENSO: Criterion Collection (1954)
  29. SUNNY & SHARE LOVE YOU (2007)
  30. SUSPICION (1987)
  31. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS: Criterion Collection (1957)
  32. SWORD OF WAR (2009)
  33. THE TEMPTATION OF ST. TONY (2009)
  34. TEN INCH HERO (2007)
  35. TWO IN THE WAVE (2010)
  36. ZAPATISTA (1999)
  37. ZENITH (2010)

Review: FISH TANK

Being a teenager. Finding a place in the world for one’s self. Developing a sense of identity. Discovering that the world is not all peaches and cream. Growing up is an eye-opening experience and can prove to be a real bitch. 15-year old Mia Williams learns these lessons the hard way in the indie drama FISH TANK.

Writer and director Andrea Arnold (RED ROAD) takes the audience into the life of Mia Williams, a teenager living in lower class neighborhood of London with her single mother and little sister. FISH TANK is an intimate, often painfully realistic portrait of a girl trying to find her place in the world.

Mia (Katie Jarvis) is a skinny but tough teen with street smarts and a sharp tongue. She’s not a textbook teenage girl, part tomboy and part rebel. The other girls in the neighbor hood hang together, seething pop culture, but Mia keeps mostly to herself. She’s a loaner and a little bit of a hypocrite.

Even though Mia mocks and bashes the other girls for “trying” to dance, Mia secretly hones her own dance skills in private. She yearns to dance like the fly girls she sees on television in the R&B music videos, but she’s embarrassed by her interest and has low self-esteem about her own abilities.

Mia’s mother Sophie (Charlotte Collins) is a single mom, a bit of a fraternizing tramp that spends her time partying and passing out drunk. She’s a terrible mother, verbally abusing and neglecting her children that have picked up the habit. Not only does Mia have a filthy, smart mouth, her little sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths) does as well.

When Sophie brings home a new man named Connor, vaguely resembling the Matthew McConaughey type — played by Michael Fassbender (300, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS) – Mia initially finds herself frustrated but curious about the man. Over time, she finds herself confused by her anger and curiosity. This relationship slowly builds an uncomfortable sexual tension, blurred somewhere between the lines of an adoptive father and an inappropriate flirtation, all outside of Sophie’s radar.

FISH TANK is a compelling tale of teenage angst, externalizing Mia’s internally withdrawn search for purpose. The story is solid, but the pace of the film unfortunately suffers a bit from the two-hour running time. Some of the scenes of Mia’s home life were longer than necessary, despite their individual effectiveness. Fortunately, the final quarter of the film evokes the most powerful reaction in place of an earlier ending.

The little details of FISH TANK are what make the movie stand out. Mia’s obsession with saving an ailing horse from a neighboring lot speaks volumes about her true nature, but her interactions with other people, even her family, speak volumes about her insecurity. As her enigmatic relationship with Connor develops, Mia learns a great deal about herself and the world, but at a devastating personal price.

Katie Jarvis gives an enjoyable, honest performance. Mia is a lit fuse — a teenager on the edge — but deep down, she’s a good kid. Her rebellious, righteous side emerges fully, if not recklessly, in the end as she uncovers some hard truths and realizations about the world, becoming the catalyst for the transition from teenager to the first step of becoming an adult.

The final shot of the film is simply and perfectly selected, serving as a metaphor for Mia’s giant step from being an ignorant child to that of being a woman on the road to adulthood. FISH TANK has some difficult subject matter, but it’s handled respectfully and intelligently.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

CIFF Review: FISH TANK

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Chicago International Film Fest 2009 – Review: Fish Tank

“Fish Tank” as in: confined, transparent quarters. Like a zoo, or a prison cell. Not a terribly original metaphor, but a plausible one, especially considering the environs of the film. Unfortunately, outside of the metaphor, the title had no tie-in with the movie. Sure, there was a scene with a fish–but it was a wild fish, and it didn’t live long enough to be put into a fish tank. I kept expecting some sort of symbolism. Perhaps I just took it too literally.

Questionable title aside, the movie was actually quite good, and very engrossing. Mia (Katie Jarvis) is a 15-year old hellion of a child. She lives with her mother and younger sister in the dirty, cramped, and perpetually noisy housing projects of Essex, England. She watches TV shows about the rich and glamorous, dances to rap and hip-hop in an empty apartment upstairs, and drinks whenever possible, all to escape the drudgery around her. She’s trapped in the “fish tank” of hopeless poverty. She is angry most of the time, and always searching for something to be angry about.

When her mother brings around Connor (Michael Fassbender, Hunger), her new boyfriend, Mia finds a perfect target for her rage, despite her own fascination with the man. He is handsome. He treats Mia and her family well. He seems too good to be true. So what does he want with them? As Mia begins to trust Connor, she confides in him her plan to audition as a dancer, as a way to avoid being sent off to a boarding school and perhaps to get out of the projects. And as it all comes crashing down–as it was bound to do–we watch Mia struggle to cope as the confines of her world seem to close back in around her. This picture is pretty bleak, for sure, but not entirely without hope.

Writer and director Andrea Arnold offers beautifully crafted insights into her characters through their actions, avoiding the kind of self-aware, sometimes mushy dialogue trap that movies such as this can easily fall into. Mia shows both compassion and recklessness in her repeated attempts to free an apparently mistreated horse, despite being chased off and nearly assaulted by the horse’s owners. Connor, on a weekend drive to a country pond, displays both resourcefulness and humanity by catching a fish with his bare hands and then killing it quickly, albeit in a harsh fashion. Later, we see the fish carcass carelessly thrown to the dog rather than being cooked for dinner, indicating a certain flippancy that contradicts Connor’s earlier mercy. These insights–combined with Arnold’s sparse, often vulgar dialogue–create a taut, unsettling story that neither pities its subject matter nor patronizes its audience.

One other subtle point I particularly liked about the film: the first thing you hear, even before the first shot of the film, is Mia breathing heavily, almost gasping for air. We hear this breathing again a few times throughout the movie, at moments of emotional intensity. Perhaps moments when our little fish Mia escapes–for a short time–from the imprisoning waters of her fish tank? Maybe there’s more symbolism here than I originally thought.