"Fish Tank" is about a rebellious 15 year old girl, Mia, (portrayed by Katie Jarvis) whose life changes when her unsympathetic mother brings a new boyfriend, Connor, home (portrayed by Michael Fassbender) to their East London 'stroke' Essex council flat.
Now, whilst I do appreciate the film for what it stands for, I personally didn't enjoy watching "Fish Tank" purely because of the ways it made me feel uncomfortable and delved into a cross section of life I don't align with. That isn't to say, however, that what Andrea Arnold has directed and written is bad at all due to my own minor and fairly awkward opinion.
"Fish Tank" is a very good film, great to an extent, because of the way Andrea Arnold makes us interact with the characters and the content through the aesthetic style she has decided to go with.
This style is not static on a tripod. It's rough, brash, constantly moving and aiming to show the hectic, unbalanced life that Mia has. The camera itself is a grained image with no added transitions or special effects; it allows itself to be affected by the natural lighting and will easily move into a character's personal space; in other words, the camera is entirely hand-held and it is the audience's voyeuristic device.
The music as well is diegetic, whatever she or any other character hears, we hear and there aren't many moments when the music turns non- diegetic for the sake of the audience. There isn't any mood music or a definite soundtrack either, making the realism more uncomfortable for us.
The content is also brash and unstable due to the life Mia leads and her interaction with the world. She is an angry, opportunity-lacking and stubborn girl who feels like there is no way out of her current situation who spends her time hiding from the school authorities, drinking and teaching herself the only saving grace; dancing.
We are steadily pulled into her life and see just how her world works in contrast to ours, watching sections that we consider mundane or unimportant to the plot out of disinterest as we aren't used to that in film. We're used to quicker paced story lines and cinematography.
The plot is unpredictable and erratic; we never know exactly what is going to happen next which creates brilliant tension in certain sections. It also creates irony when you begin to consider just how much the film gets on with details rather than slowly sugar coating them so the audience can understand. It's all snappy in both writing and action yet still adheres to the classical three act structure.
Since Mia is our focus, the camera is almost entirely fixed on her and her point of view, we rarely see a character act any differently when she is not in the same area or have their development center stage much like we'd expect a film to include.
What "Fish Tank" does is subvert the stereotypical 'kitchen sink drama', an example of that would be BBC's "Eastenders", and takes away judgment. It provides the audience a literal example of 'don't judge a book by its cover', particularly when this film is entirely set in an area some of us know very little about due to news coverage and films re-stylising for the sake of entertainment purposes (such as Guy Ritchie's 1998 "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" or even Mike Hodge's 1971 "Get Carter" which both portray the working class but in different manners).
"Fish Tank" is completely authentic and realistic so whilst it's hard to believe such events can happen in a gritty, modern day film such as this, it is still a part of our world and so I admire Andrea Arnold's aim to stay faithful to the area she captured on film.
But as I said before, I felt very uncomfortable watching the film and how there wasn't exactly a moral. By this I mean that Arnold doesn't offer anything more than just an insight into Mia's world and leaves the film on a cliffhanger with every character's fate and doesn't explain anything further, despite our 2 hour time period spent observing Mia and almost being a part of her life. My only other negative feelings over "Fish Tank" are that I didn't understand it well enough to appreciate it entirely due to my own inadequacy as an independent film-goer, which is what Andrea Arnold clearly wants to knock down the barriers for, and it's not something I would re-watch for the sake of entertainment or education.
But overall, despite my own negative gripes, "Fish Tank" is honestly a good film and worth a watch for anybody interested in social classes, unconventional story lines and independent films in general. Love it or hate it, it's a great example as to how filmmakers are willing to go all the way for gritty, authentic and realistic stories in a modern day setting.
Now, whilst I do appreciate the film for what it stands for, I personally didn't enjoy watching "Fish Tank" purely because of the ways it made me feel uncomfortable and delved into a cross section of life I don't align with. That isn't to say, however, that what Andrea Arnold has directed and written is bad at all due to my own minor and fairly awkward opinion.
"Fish Tank" is a very good film, great to an extent, because of the way Andrea Arnold makes us interact with the characters and the content through the aesthetic style she has decided to go with.
This style is not static on a tripod. It's rough, brash, constantly moving and aiming to show the hectic, unbalanced life that Mia has. The camera itself is a grained image with no added transitions or special effects; it allows itself to be affected by the natural lighting and will easily move into a character's personal space; in other words, the camera is entirely hand-held and it is the audience's voyeuristic device.
The music as well is diegetic, whatever she or any other character hears, we hear and there aren't many moments when the music turns non- diegetic for the sake of the audience. There isn't any mood music or a definite soundtrack either, making the realism more uncomfortable for us.
The content is also brash and unstable due to the life Mia leads and her interaction with the world. She is an angry, opportunity-lacking and stubborn girl who feels like there is no way out of her current situation who spends her time hiding from the school authorities, drinking and teaching herself the only saving grace; dancing.
We are steadily pulled into her life and see just how her world works in contrast to ours, watching sections that we consider mundane or unimportant to the plot out of disinterest as we aren't used to that in film. We're used to quicker paced story lines and cinematography.
The plot is unpredictable and erratic; we never know exactly what is going to happen next which creates brilliant tension in certain sections. It also creates irony when you begin to consider just how much the film gets on with details rather than slowly sugar coating them so the audience can understand. It's all snappy in both writing and action yet still adheres to the classical three act structure.
Since Mia is our focus, the camera is almost entirely fixed on her and her point of view, we rarely see a character act any differently when she is not in the same area or have their development center stage much like we'd expect a film to include.
What "Fish Tank" does is subvert the stereotypical 'kitchen sink drama', an example of that would be BBC's "Eastenders", and takes away judgment. It provides the audience a literal example of 'don't judge a book by its cover', particularly when this film is entirely set in an area some of us know very little about due to news coverage and films re-stylising for the sake of entertainment purposes (such as Guy Ritchie's 1998 "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" or even Mike Hodge's 1971 "Get Carter" which both portray the working class but in different manners).
"Fish Tank" is completely authentic and realistic so whilst it's hard to believe such events can happen in a gritty, modern day film such as this, it is still a part of our world and so I admire Andrea Arnold's aim to stay faithful to the area she captured on film.
But as I said before, I felt very uncomfortable watching the film and how there wasn't exactly a moral. By this I mean that Arnold doesn't offer anything more than just an insight into Mia's world and leaves the film on a cliffhanger with every character's fate and doesn't explain anything further, despite our 2 hour time period spent observing Mia and almost being a part of her life. My only other negative feelings over "Fish Tank" are that I didn't understand it well enough to appreciate it entirely due to my own inadequacy as an independent film-goer, which is what Andrea Arnold clearly wants to knock down the barriers for, and it's not something I would re-watch for the sake of entertainment or education.
But overall, despite my own negative gripes, "Fish Tank" is honestly a good film and worth a watch for anybody interested in social classes, unconventional story lines and independent films in general. Love it or hate it, it's a great example as to how filmmakers are willing to go all the way for gritty, authentic and realistic stories in a modern day setting.