Fish Tank · reception & legacy
2009 · Andrea Arnold
How Fish Tank has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
It won the Jury Prize at Cannes and the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film right out of the gate, so this was never a flop-to-classic story — but its stature has only climbed since, riding Michael Fassbender's stardom and Andrea Arnold's rise into the pantheon of British filmmakers.
What's debated
The perennial fan debate is the queasy pull of Fassbender's Connor — viewers keep confessing (and arguing about) how charming the film lets him be, and whether that's the whole point.
Its footprint
Bobby Womack's cover of 'California Dreamin'' is now permanently welded to this film for a generation of viewers, and the image of Mia dancing alone in an empty council flat is one of the most gif'd and referenced shots in 2000s British cinema.
Where it stands
A Criterion-stamped modern British classic and a Letterboxd staple — the go-to answer when someone asks where to start with British social realism after Loach and Leigh.