The top critics have weighed in, and we are thrilled to say the word on Andrea Arnold’s FISH TANK is overwhelmingly positive!



A.O. Scott of the New York Times calls the film a ‘TOUGH and BRILLIANT second feature…a diamond-hard reflection on the peril and progress of a fragile soul in a bad situation…NEARLY FLAWLESS’. He notes that Michael Fassbender is ‘quickly establishing himself as an actor of impressive range and skill,’ and the young star Katie Jarvis’ performance as ‘Mia’ is ‘astonishing,’ ‘the movie is Mia’s, whose life is too much for her to handle but who must learn to manage it anyway. Whether she will succeed is a big question, of course, but Ms. Jarvis’s triumph, and Ms. Arnold’s, are hardly in doubt.’



Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers found FISH TANK to be ‘AN EXHILARATING GIFT.’ ‘ Katie Jarvis, 18, hits you like a shot in the heart with her sensational breakout performance. And cheers to director Andrea Arnold, who flies on her own unerring instincts…The electrifying Fassbender, so good in Hunger and Inglourious Basterds, nails every nuance in a complex role.’ He raves that director Andrea Arnold ‘keeps the screen filled to bursting with the beauty and raw terror of life.’



David Denby of The New Yorker continues to sing the praises of the young newcomer Katie Jarvis: ‘At seventeen, tall and slender and wide-eyed, she holds nothing back.’ Michael Fassbender is ’star presence. And a fearless actor.’ FISH TANK is ‘a commanding, emotionally satisfying movie, comparable to such youth-in-trouble
classics as THE 400 BLOWS.’




New York Magazine continues to lay on the praise, saying that the film has a ‘breathtaking openness’, and Andrew O’Hehir of SALON cuts right to the chase: ‘I’m telling you here and now to seek out FISH TANK, either at a big-city theater or via VOD, because it’s absolute dynamite.’