My Experience Watching Fish Tank
First of all, I have to say that I am so happy that I decided to watch this movie. I have for sure put it on my list of my favorite movies of all time.
Like I had mentioned in my other MIYST post, I was really excited when we were given this assignment. I was so happy to give myself a reason to sit down on the couch and watch a couple new movies. Of course, my last MIYST experience was not great... Alright. That was being nice. It was awful. This second round of MIYST was the polar opposite. I absolutely enjoyed every second of this movie. I liked it so much, that I am sure I will re-watch Fish Tank over and over again until I know every line of the whole thing. This film makes you think, it makes you feel, and it will for sure leave a long lasting impression on whoever watches it. I am sure this blog post will be somewhat of a mess because there is so much that I want to say about this movie, that my mind is running a mile a minute. I can promise you that I will try my best though.
One night I was looking through Netflix trying to find something to watch. Immediately I thought of the actor Michael Fassbender. I absolutely adore Michael Fassbender. He is so talented and has been great in every single movie that I have seen him in so far. He always seems to play really complicated and misunderstood characters. I really admire him for this reason, only because these roles are typically very ambitious. Fassbender has starred in several movies in the past few years, but most of them aren't films that most people would have heard of. Most of his well-known movies are films that he has not starred in. The movies that I have seen and the films he has starred in are Jane Eyre, Fish Tank, Hunger, Shame, Angel and A Dangerous Method. The most popular films where e has ben a supporting actor in are Inglorious Bastards, X-men: First Class, 12 Years A Slave and X-men: Days of Future Past. He is known to be "that Irish guy in the X-men movies". Anyway, I was really hoping that I would be able to find a film that he was in that I hadn't seen yet! That is where I found the movie Fish Tank.
Fish Tank is a 2009 British film that was written and directed by Andrea Arnold. It is a drama that takes place in East London in a somewhat underprivileged area. Mia, a 15 year old lives with her mother and her sister in an apartment. I will try to avoid going into detail about the plot but basically Mia's mother get involved with this man named Connor (Michael Fassbender). As the story goes on, Mia and Connor develop a really and I mean REALLY twisted relationship that is really messed up and complicated. I will leave the trailer to the movie below in case you want to see what I mean by messed up.
There were a couple very important symbols in the movie that as a viewer you need to notice. The biggest symbol I would have to say is the chained up horse. In the movie (this is another example of why this movie is beautifully weird) there is a chained up horse that is placed right at the entry way of a trailer park. Mia is very persistent on freeing this horse and comes back a second time to let the horse go free even when she was assaulted from her last attempt. I believe this horse can represent a couple different things. I think it represents Mia's dream of being free from her harsh life, her image, and these feelings she has for her mom's boyfriend. Overall, the use of symbolism in this movie is really amazing.
Not only did I fall in love with the characters and the plot of this movie, I also fell in love with how it was directed and filmed. I think it was such a unique movie. I really do believe that it is art. A lot of times the movie is filmed with lots of discontinuity shots. A lot of times the director will be focused on one scene, and all of a sudden, he will cut to a different setting. There are also scenes in this movie where the shaky camera technique is used to further show the rawness of the film. Also, the lighting in the movie is very complex. A lot of times there are characters that are kept in the darkness for various reasons depending on that specific scene. There is one scene that I believe captures the tone of the movie perfectly, as well as displays different filming techniques. This is where Mia breaks into the abandoned apartment alone, and does what she loves the most in her world; she dances. Although her dancing could be comical to some, her dancing skills aren't the point of the scene. I will put a link to this scene below along with the trailer.
Obviously I could not be happier with this choice in film. I really appreciated the several themes and artistic aspect of this movie. I highly recommend Fish Tank to anyone who is interested in a different, artistic and bold film. I give Fish Tank a 9 out of 10 stars.
Fish Tank is a 2009 British film that was written and directed by Andrea Arnold. It is a drama that takes place in East London in a somewhat underprivileged area. Mia, a 15 year old lives with her mother and her sister in an apartment. I will try to avoid going into detail about the plot but basically Mia's mother get involved with this man named Connor (Michael Fassbender). As the story goes on, Mia and Connor develop a really and I mean REALLY twisted relationship that is really messed up and complicated. I will leave the trailer to the movie below in case you want to see what I mean by messed up.
There were a couple very important symbols in the movie that as a viewer you need to notice. The biggest symbol I would have to say is the chained up horse. In the movie (this is another example of why this movie is beautifully weird) there is a chained up horse that is placed right at the entry way of a trailer park. Mia is very persistent on freeing this horse and comes back a second time to let the horse go free even when she was assaulted from her last attempt. I believe this horse can represent a couple different things. I think it represents Mia's dream of being free from her harsh life, her image, and these feelings she has for her mom's boyfriend. Overall, the use of symbolism in this movie is really amazing.
Not only did I fall in love with the characters and the plot of this movie, I also fell in love with how it was directed and filmed. I think it was such a unique movie. I really do believe that it is art. A lot of times the movie is filmed with lots of discontinuity shots. A lot of times the director will be focused on one scene, and all of a sudden, he will cut to a different setting. There are also scenes in this movie where the shaky camera technique is used to further show the rawness of the film. Also, the lighting in the movie is very complex. A lot of times there are characters that are kept in the darkness for various reasons depending on that specific scene. There is one scene that I believe captures the tone of the movie perfectly, as well as displays different filming techniques. This is where Mia breaks into the abandoned apartment alone, and does what she loves the most in her world; she dances. Although her dancing could be comical to some, her dancing skills aren't the point of the scene. I will put a link to this scene below along with the trailer.
Obviously I could not be happier with this choice in film. I really appreciated the several themes and artistic aspect of this movie. I highly recommend Fish Tank to anyone who is interested in a different, artistic and bold film. I give Fish Tank a 9 out of 10 stars.
Hey, great work with these MYSTS, and thanks for recommending this movie. Haven't seen it yet, but I want to after reading this. I also think Fassbender is doing really good work. Pleasure reading your posts.
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