Fish Tank

City Paper Grade: A-

by Cindy Fuchs

TINY DANCER: Katie Jarvis plays Mia, a teen who yearns to escape her life, in Fish Tank.

[ CITY PAPER GRADE:  A- ]

"You dance like a black. It's a compliment," says Connor (Michael Fassbender) as he watches his girlfriend's daughter, Mia (Katie Jarvis), mimic the moves in an Ashanti video. Fifteen years old, sullen and skinny, Mia imagines she'll soon be dancing her way out of the housing project where she lives with her miserable, hard-partying mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing), and suitably confused younger sister, Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths). Throughout Andrea Arnold's follow-up to her mesmerizing Red Road, Mia's vision is limited. This much is made plain in Fish Tank's opening scene, as Mia practices her moves in an empty flat. When she pauses to look out the dirty window, she sees more of the same, grim buildings and narrow streets. Then, from her bedroom, Mia spots Joanne dancing in her underwear; as much as she wants not to be like her mother, still, they mirror each other, especially as Connor's flirtations with Mia become more pronounced. Even outside the flat, Mia finds more reflections, one a scrawny gray horse chained to a rock near a gypsy trailer, the other a gypsy kid, Billy (Harry Treadaway), who brings her along when he steals car parts. Encouraging Mia to follow her "dream," Connor provides a video camera so she can make an audition tape. But she misgauges the solicitations, from both Connor and the business-seeking dancers. If Mia's story is familiar, the film represents it in evocative, even haunting images. Close-ups offer access to unspoken feelings; long shots underline Mia's sense of smallness amid a depressingly static chaos. The mobile frames are always slightly off, as Mia misunderstands what she sees and also eludes your understanding. This is the film's most effective strategy, to connect images that promote desire with images that do not.