Mia’s downward spiral leads her on an inevitable path that becomes increasingly painful for the audience to endure, but that’s why Arnold’s film is so successful.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 22, 2023

[Katie Jarvis] had never acted before, and in reality, she doesn’t act, instead she lives before the cameras. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 19, 2022

Agritty, gripping drama that boasts a terrific performance by newcomer Katie Jarvis.

| Nov 24, 2020

If you come for Fassbender, you'll stay for Jarvis. A nonprofessional actor who got the role after being scouted during an argument with her then-boyfriend, she's extraordinary...

| Nov 6, 2020

Always vibrantly alive, teeming with energy and a raw, compelling power.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 5, 2019

Jarvis brings an abrasive brilliance to the role of Mia...

| Jul 26, 2019

Arnold nails the gnarled world of Mia: by product of a neglectful mother, and a landscape awash in booze and deprived of the educational and fiscal means of social betterment.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 4, 2019

It's not wholly convincing and its view of tower-block dwellers may well be patronising, but it is utterly absorbing and has such impact that you seriously have to gather yourself afterwards.

| Aug 30, 2018

Arnold's script and camera close in and tear apart ideas of the poor, youth, and what makes a good man.

| May 18, 2018

... a film whose originality and reflection of reality, as well as absolute rawness will leave you with a bittersweet taste in your mouth. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 20, 2018

[Andrea] Arnold has a knack for subtle details but also for portraying female characters whose natural warmth and energy have been muted by trauma or social isolation.

| Sep 24, 2014

An assured piece of phoniness.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

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

| Original Score: 83/100 | Aug 18, 2011

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

| Original Score: C- | Mar 9, 2011

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 1, 2011

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

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 28, 2011

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...

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 3, 2011

Stark, powerful drama for older teens and adults.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2010

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 21, 2010

( ... ) Fish Tank feels more fluid, more passionate than other recent English films about the wretched working classes.

| Sep 10, 2010