FISH TANK (2009) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Andrea Arnold
Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Griffiths,
Harry Treadaway, Kierston Wareing, Sarah Bayes
Nobody does working-class despair better than the Brits. This movie's about a 15-year-old girl named Mia, who has what you might call anger management issues. She lives with her mother and younger sister in a noisy, crumbling flat in a kind of urban no man's land, where she's apparently dodging school and pinning her hopes for the future on catching a break as a dancer. Her dogged ambition greatly outweighs her actual prospects. She's played by Katie Jarvis, a newcomer who has the surly teenage rebellion routine down cold, apparently from living it. It's a remarkable debut performance, as real as Mia's tank-top-and-sweat-pants wardrobe and the junkyard where her potential new boyfriend steals parts for used cars. After watching it, you'll be real glad you didn't grow up in this rundown corner of England. But you'll remember one who did, at least on film. And you'll remember Katie Jarvis.
