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

[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 may begin as a patch of lower-class chaos, but it turns into a commanding, emotionally satisfying movie, comparable to such youth-in-trouble classics as The 400 Blows.

| Jul 7, 2010

The film's rough patches are ... considerably smoothed over by its performers.

| Original Score: B | Jul 5, 2010

A bold new entry in the long-standing British tradition of disquieting social realism.

| Original Score: 9.7/10 | Jul 4, 2010

One of the best British films of recent years, Fish Tank marks a leap forward from Arnold's first feature, the contrived Red Road.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 28, 2010

Writer-director Andrea Arnold, working in British lower-class realism, still finds wondrous moments of connection in Mia's life.

| Original Score: A- | Mar 5, 2010

Writer-director Andrea Arnold has created something so real and raw, you may come away with a twinge of guilty voyeurism, a sense of peering too closely and impolitely into other people's lives.

| Mar 5, 2010

Fish Tank isn't an easy watch - it's like two hours of ache - but there are rich rewards to be had in the many ways Arnold and her terrific team rend us to and fro.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2010

Katie Jarvis has a natural presence that matches the unsentimental minimalism of the film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 4, 2010

Andrea Arnold is too skilled not to surprise you with the unexpectedly graceful moment, and she has a feel for the downtrodden milieu she loves exploring.

| Feb 26, 2010

The film swims in an anguish not solely the result of Mia's coming of age -- and yet, it surfaces for air in ways compelling and uncompromising.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 26, 2010

In the film's dark final third, it's as if we've entered a waking nightmare, with stop-and-start rhythms as Mia takes one wrong step after another.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 26, 2010

Fish Tank, which won the 2009 Jury Prize in Cannes, has moments when Mia's tribulations really hit home.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 19, 2010

To the script's credit, when the climax comes it feels inevitable yet surprising too -- that ideal combination.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 19, 2010

In a year less crowded with new young talent, Katie Jarvis might now be getting fittings for her Oscar nomination dress.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 19, 2010

Fish Tank digs around in its protagonist's psyche, unafraid to explore. It's oppressive and claustrophobic, confused and scary in there. But it's also compellingly real.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 11, 2010

Unfolds as a conventional coming-of-age story, yet Andrea Arnold hasn't altered her persuasively jaundiced view of men, who seem as pitifully helpless against their horndog urges as the women foolish enough to care for them.

| Feb 8, 2010

Isn't that what we mostly go to the movies to see when we pay to see drama? Stories that touch our hearts and minds in a relatable way and in doing so achieve greatness? Fish Tank is a great movie.

| Feb 5, 2010