Fish TankMovie Reviews

Must Go!
Avg. Critic Score: 81 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 Iffy for 17+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 91
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    The amazingly natural first-timer was discovered, in a gift of publicity-ready truth, while having an argument with her boyfriend at a train station. Read full review

  • 90
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    It's been a good while since I've seen a movie whose most powerful sequence was both unforeseen and entirely unpredictable as it played out. Read full review

  • 90
    NPR |

    Andrea Arnold has crafted a scene that approaches a literal embodiment of the term "kitchen-sink drama" here is most likely coincidence; nevertheless, her film is a bold new entry in that long-standing British tradition of disquieting social realism. Read full review

  • 88
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    While you're remembering new high-impact names, add Arnold. In only her second film, after 2006's "Red Road," she keeps the screen filled to bursting with the beauty and raw terror of life. Read full review

  • 88
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea

    It's oppressive and claustrophobic, confused and scary in there. But it's also compellingly real. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    A brilliantly acted and achingly bleak coming-of-age story. Read full review

  • 80
    The Hollywood Reporter | Ray Bennett

    The film belongs to Jarvis, however, and she makes the most of it with expressive features that convey Mia's mixed-up emotions from raging temper to sweet vulnerability. She will go far. Read full review

  • 80
    New York Daily News | Joe Neumaier

    Arnold generally steers clear of cinematic melodrama, and Jarvis infuses the entire film with the sort of kinetic spirit that heralds a new talent. Read full review

  • 75
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    Fish Tank should be seen for what it does well and for what it hints may come, if Andrea Arnold and her audiences are lucky. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Even as it stands, Fish Tank is a valuable movie, though it aspires to a social insight it doesn't attain and a psychological penetration it won't maintain. Read full review

View more reviews for Fish Tank on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 17+ Stark, powerful drama for older teens and adults.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this British drama about a teenager who falls for her inattentive mother’s boyfriend can be relentlessly bleak at times, and its mature themes may be too intense for all but the oldest of teens. But it’s a powerful film with a heroine who’s determined and resourceful in a world with few options. There’s plenty of swearing and drinking, and not just by adults. Teens and tweens have their vices, too -- like drinking and picking fights -- and are seen indulging in them fairly frequently.
  • Families can talk about the sexual activity in the movie. Do you think Connor is taking advantage of Mia? Do you know any teens who've been intimately involved with adults? Teens: Who can you talk to about these issues?
  • What are the real-life consequences of behavior such as underage drinking? Are those consequences depicted believably here?
  • Why is Mia the way she is? What and who have shaped her personality? If she hates the way her mother is, why does she act a lot like her sometimes? How are they different?
The good stuff
  • message true2 Positive messages: Despite enormous challenges, Mia bristles under the pressure to stay inert in an environment that’s suffocating her. The message? You don’t have to be a victim of your environment, though redemption and reinvention are hard to get, and true love even more so. The one true thing may be love of yourself.
  • rolemodels true0 Positive role models: Mia strives to rise above her circumstances, which is difficult, and she sometimes makes destructive choices. All the characters are flawed and, if they mean to do good, end up hurting others, including a man who appears genuinely interested in a young woman’s fate but takes action that ultimately scars her.
What to watch for
  • violence false2 Violence: A girl headbutts another and leaves her with a bloodied nose. A man slaps a teenager after she tries to kidnap his daughter. Two men manhandle a young woman after she tries to free their chained horse.
  • sex false4 Sexy stuff: An adult beds a teenager while her mother is passed out upstairs. He's shown removing her pants and positioning himself between her legs. A teen spies on her mother and her boyfriend while they have sex in the dark; her breasts are briefly shown, and his chest is bared. Couples dance suggestively; a teenager walks into a kitchen, where a man appears to be fondling a woman under her skirt (nothing is seen except for the hand under clothing).
  • language false4 Language: Runs the gamut from “skanky” and “s--t” to “f--k” and “c--t.”
  • consumerism false1 Consumerism: Some beer labels; one of the characters is keen on stripping Volvos of parts for his own use. Certain CD covers are shown.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false4 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Both adults and children -- as young as tweens -- drink and smoke frequently.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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