It's Hard Out There For A Nymph

It's tough being a teenage girl. Especially when enduring (and hopefully, when you can) enjoying, that breakthrough age of 15. A lot happens when you're 15. Though some girls float through adolescence with a winsome (or conceited) confidence -- soaking in and gaining assurance from their protected status as daddy's little princesses; or benefiting from strong, supportive mothers, those not blessed with such luxuries (and having two parents like that is a luxury; it shouldn't be, but it is) find themselves stomping and scraping and screaming through youth with a special kind of Napoleon complex that only female teens and Joe Pesci possess.

Teenage girls, from intelligent young lasses rolling their eyes through AP English to those rampaging their way through baby burlesque episodes of Maury Povich, are constantly enduring life's "Get your shine-box" indignities -- even if they can't properly articulate what those indignities are. They just know they don't like them. As in, they don't like how you're eye-balling them. They don't like your passive-aggressive insulting missives. They don't like your aggressive-aggressive insulting missives. And they especially don't like your fucking tone. "You don't know me! You don't know me!" they proclaim, pugnaciously echoing the query: "Am I here to amuse you?"

Such is the case with 15-year-old Mia (Katie Jarvis) in Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank (her second picture after the impressive Red Road) -- a rough, yet sensitive kitchen sink drama that finds our young heroine stuck in the British projects, clomping through its ugliness with a touching mixture of righteous indignation and moist-eyed vulnerability.

She's 15, so playing tough girl is still a form of playing. She and her little sister exchange pleasantries like "fuck face" and "cunt bucket" (which actually made me laugh out loud from its easy honesty -- a pre-teen girl casually declaring her sister the c-word, my goodness), and yet she's not playing: Mia's surroundings are making her grow up -- harder and faster and with an enormous chip on her shoulder. She has little power in the world save for her youth and vigor and spunk and, as is often the case with teenage girls, her blossoming sexuality -- a beautiful thing and yet, a thing that will cause confusion and pain. When a group of guys roughhouse Mia, grabbing and holding her with the intent of possible violation, she kicks and screams and valiantly runs away. It's a wonderful scene watching Mia refuse to be victimized, but then the shot of her fleeing so quickly and breathing so hard reveals her fear -- and that's both sad and supremely touching. She's still a kid. And again, it's damn hard for a teenage girl.

A lone wolf, Mia is clearly intelligent, but probably doesn't know just how smart she is. When watching a small group of scantily clad teen girls engaging in an overtly sexual dance routine, she looks at their attempts to emulate the Beyoncé, Britney, Christina, Pussycat Doll ideal with bemused disgust. To Mia, this isn't dancing and she informs the belly-pierced clan flat-out: they suck. It's a telling moment that Mia, who loves to dance, would not only hold some standards regarding their rehearsal, but be both threatened and repulsed by the girl's sexual movements. This kind of overt sexuality is going to serve an important, thrilling, but frequently annoying role in her life, and especially with her dreams of dancing (as a later scene in a strip club will show). You get the sense that this is all washing over her as she observes them, and so after they charge back at her with that patent and tired insult between girls (she's ugly), Mia pulls out the Pesci and head-butts one of them.

In another movie, this moment might inspire an "Oh, hell yes!" with the audience. But Arnold isn't that simplistic. It's a funny and scary moment, but also it's a little tragic -- especially when we see where some of this aggression and abuse has come from -- her terrible mother.

That's blonde sexpot and perpetual loser Joanne (Kierston Wareing), a young mother who drinks too much, screams at her little girls too much, and leaves them to their own devices. They (all of the girls and women) imbibe, they smoke, they swear -- she seems oblivious to it all. Home is one long bitch-fest, with mom and little sis, Tyler (an impressive Rebecca Griffiths) constantly squabbling, so Mia finds escape in a lonely apartment building, drinking and hip hop dancing to rap music.

The household dynamic changes significantly when Mom gets a new boyfriend. That's the handsome, charming Connor (an extraordinary Michael Fassbender), who cares more about the girls than Mom does. He takes them fishing, he carries them to bed, and he encourages Mia's dancing, even introducing her to the sounds of James Brown and most especially Bobby Womack's gorgeously heart-rending version of "California Dreamin'" (he has good taste), and letting her borrow a video camera to record one of her routines. He also finds himself attracted to her, but you're not certain at first. Mia is clearly smitten with Connor, and as she watches him make love to her mother through a half-open door, she's curious and probably jealous. This guy may be the only positive paternal influence she's had, but it's mixed up in heated sexual desire. She wants him. And, in a shocking, but bravely erotic scene, he wants her -- and then...they do something about it.

And, truly, their seduction moves from questionably erotic to downright hot, nearing the precipice of exploitation. Mia's under 16 (under the age of legal consent in England) and Connor's closing in on 30 -- or older. We should be outraged. We're not.

Read my entire piece at IFC, where I'm this month's guest critic.

Comments

[Andy]

Just read the full version on IFC, great article. I’m so glad you finally got this movie in America, it came out last summer here in the UK, I declared it my movie of the month in a strong moth that included 500 Days of Summer, District 9 and Adventureland. It ended the year number 12 in my movies of the year list.

The acting in this film was so good a lot of reviews almost forgot the filmmaking. As a film it is brighter, more vibrant and certainly more accessible than Andrea Arnold’s other feature Red Road. The way the film is shot is unusual with the framing often contracting to a claustrophobic almost square screen. The use of light is amazing and she even occasionally finds beauty in ugly urban landscapes and totally benign settings.

Sadly it is a film far too few people will see.

[Julie]

Love your insight on the varieties of the teenaged girl ....

[J. Sperling Reich]

This piece is as well written and engaging as "Fish Tank" itself. It is rare to read such well thought out and educated commentary on films these days.

I agree with your sentiment about the dynamic between Mia and Connor. The sexual tension between them helps, in part, to drive the film, and ultimately the most significant change in Mia.

[bp]

great review (i read the whole ifc one) though i differ w/ you that we're rooting for the seduction scene to happen, or that is is inevitable, or that we're not repulsed. i was wholly repulsed by connor's actions and his easy sleaziness (which we come to learn are only the tip of the iceberg). being generous, he's a fraud. also, i hated the last shot of the movie which stepped it down from truly great to pretty damn good. an otherwise amazing, glorious film.