South Philly Review

For a movie with nary a shocking twist, the British miserablist drama “Fish Tank” boasts its fair share of surprises. The first is the guileless, gripping central performance by 18-year-old Katie Jarvis, a first-time actress and genuine find (she was in fact discovered at a train platform in Essex, England, where the film is set). As Mia, a 15-year-old spitfire with a passion for hip-hop dancing and not much else, Jarvis is scarily convincing, capturing the cyclonic limbo of adolescence without a hint of irony or effort.

She’s in perfect step with writer/director Andrea Arnold, whose only two features, “Red Road” and “Fish Tank,” both nabbed the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. There’s not a false note to speak of in Arnold’s latest. It’s so realistic there’s the occasional swell of uncomfortable guilt about peering into Mia’s joyless life, much of which unfolds in a dingy apartment she shares with her wretch of a mother (Kierston Wareing) and pill of a little sister (Rebecca Griffiths).

That unerring sense of messy truth also accounts for the movie’s other surprises: It’s easy to intuit where the decidedly slender plot is heading, but even its inevitable developments feel like curveballs given the uncommon honesty of the acting and filmmaking. For example, anyone could’ve predicted the trajectory of the relationship between Mia and her mom’s new boyfriend, Connor (the ever-fascinating Michael Fassbender), the moment he spots her dancing in the kitchen and offers a compliment, shirtless. But try to breathe when the relationship hits a fever pitch. And try not to feel another kind of guilt as Arnold opts for slow-motion whenever the two are close, creating an undeniable, hypnotic eroticism.

Not everyone will respond well to “Fish Tank,” but true film buffs will likely be hooked by the director’s subtle mastery, which also is apparent in her simply beautiful visual choices. In charting the tumultuous hopes and emotions of a girl whose future is neither murky nor bright, she’s made the most impressively forthright portrait of teenage angst since Catherine Hardwicke’s “Thirteen.”

Fish Tank
Not rated
Four reels out of four
At Ritz at the Bourse tomorrow

Law Abiding Citizen
R
Available Tuesday

Director F. Gary Gray’s Philly-set cat-and-mouse thriller, “Law Abiding Citizen,” didn’t fare well with most critics. I, however, rather enjoyed its fast-paced action and hard-edged fun, which erupt when an imprisoned mastermind (Gerard Butler) enacts revenge on the entire justice system after his family’s murderer is handed a lenient sentence.

The movie’s not nearly as clever as it thinks it is, but it’s fine popcorn fare. Philadelphia is featured so prominently, it’s practically a supporting player.