Fish Tank (2009) Writer/Director: Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold established herself four years ago (after winning a short film Oscar for Wasp) with Red Road, the murky thriller set in a Glasgow residential high-rise. It was a startling debut with excellent central performances and a story that had you hooked from start to finish. Her 2009 follow up Fish Tank manages to create a different but equally nightmarish story based in a high rise council estate that still grips from start to finish.
It centres around 15 yr old Mia, a troubled girl that has been expelled from school and spends her days practising street dancing whilst drinking cider. She has no friends and seems to incite trouble wherever she goes. Things are not helped by the lack of any decent parenting from her layabout mother. Then things change when her mum starts seeing Connor, a charming Irishman that shows kindness to Mia, her mother and baby sister. He encourages Mia to go to a local audition for dancing jobs after seeing her perform and his support makes Mia confused towards his feelings for her, and vice versa. Sadly things take a turn for the worse when Connor puts Mia's mum to bed and gets drunk on vodka. Mia goes downstairs and ends up dancing her new routine for Connor. Then one thing leads to another....
Fish Tank bravely plants itself in morally ambiguous area's. For one thing would anything have happened had Mia not went downstairs to Connor, knowing her Mum was unlikely to waken from her drunken coma? She is not blameless in this but she is still under-age and vulnerable and Connor feeds off this, mixing up easy going charm and kindness with almost stomach turningly subtle flirting. Michael Fassbender yet again proves what a phenomenal actor he is, channelling such a charming malevolence throughout the film until he makes his disgraced escape. However the lion share of the plaudits must go to the wonderful Katie Jarvis for her powder keg performance as Mia. Simmering on the edge of a breakdown throughout, the outward vitriol masking what at heart is just a young girl needing someone who actually cares is brutally savage, heart breaking and spellbinding to watch. Sure it is a little strange how easy Mia finds Connor after his disappearing act and maybe her form of cack handed revenge was a tad over the top and potentially cruel but all that is forgotten with the heart breaking audition scene, when she realises exactly what kind of dancers the club is looking for. It ends on what could be called an uplifting note (Mia's goodbye to her sister stays true to the outward spikiness but hidden sentiment of the film) but you will not forget what has went on before. Not an easy film to
get out of your head but it features one of the most dangerous, and best film pairings of recent times.
4/5
Fish Story (2009) Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura, Screenplay: Tamio Hayashi
Time travel related films have been quite common over the last ten years. Some have been brilliant (Donnie Darko), some promising but flawed ( The Butterfly Effect) and a lot (The Lake House, Deja Vu, fucking S.Darko) have been total wastes of time. So it is excellent to see the formula get abused in such as delightfully ludicrous way as you see in Yoshihiro Nakamura's Japanese gem, Fish Story.
The plot (?) is spread over 37 years and revolves around a failed punk song called 'Fish Story', a song with ridiculous lyrics but kick ass music. The band released the song to deaf ears in 1975 (a year before the 'Sex Pistols' took the world by storm) and promptly disbanded. 37 years down the line the song is the point of discussion in a record store between two men when an old man comes in informing them that a comet is about to collide with Japan and end their lives. The record shop worker informs them of 'Fish Story' and the myths surrounding it and then tells them the song will save the world. The story jumps back and forth showing (sometimes clearly, sometimes not so) how the song has come into each person's life, including one of the song's myths helping a cowardly man prevent a rape. The strands that hold the film together are like the song itself; there are spaces to be found and you can make your own mind up as to what it's about but ultimately the film is pure entertainment. Hilarious, breathtakingly plotted and actually really sweet, Nakamura has made a film that may not make much sense, but it definitely makes excellent viewing. The final scene will leave you smiling inside - this world is one worth living in.
4/5
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