I watched Andrea Arnold's FISH TANK. Pretty good stuff, deserved of the praise it got in Cannes. Rough stuff - dark social realism to the max. The 15-y-o girl who plays the lead (amateur, natch) is pretty fantastic, and she gets good backing, especially from Michael Fassbender as her mom's boyfriend. The cinematography is interesting for two reasons: first, it conjures up small delicate poetic moments, just brief glimpses of something magical in that dreary everyday life - reminded me of Lynne Ramsay in a sense. Second, and this felt weird at first: it's shot in what must be 4:3. Very odd these days, must've been an aesthetic choice, but it pays off. Anyway, looks great. Or as great as a rotten tenement building in Liverpool? Manchester? can look.
It's playing at TIFF and probably elsewhere soon - I recommend it. It's not masterful - a bit too long, some contrived moments, some superfluous scenes seemingly only there to humiliate the characters and hammer home the point that they are indeed poor and live awful lives. Also there's a discussion to be had re Arnold's viewpoint - is she simply seeing the world as a bleak and desperate place without hope, or is she actually looking down on the poor underclass and implying that they basically have nothing to live for and have little or no happiness in their lives?
