New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Charlotte O'Sullivan's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Andrea Arnold.
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Griffiths, Harry Treadaway, Kierston Wareing, Katie Jarvis
Description: Fifteen-year-old Mia lives on a rundown housing estate with her mother Joanne and mouthy, little sister Tyler. Tensions within the household intensify with the arrival of Joanne's new boyfriend, Connor. He encourages Mia to pursue her dreams of becoming a dancer and as man and girl become increasingly close, the sparks of sexual attraction threaten to push them both over the edge.
Country: UK. 2009. 122mins
Dancing queen: Katie Jarvis is Mia, the 15-year-old tearaway whose life is opened up by her mum’s boyfriend
A working-class heroine is something to be and 15-year-old Mia (Katie Jarvis) certainly dominates the landscape in Andrea Arnold’s award-winning drama.
An Essex-girl version of a tomboy, she hurls abuse at her peers, evades social workers and drinks like a fish. As her mother keeps pointing out, she’s still a virgin. Mia’s not easy, in any sense of the word.
Fish Tank’s catalyst is Connor (the disturbingly charismatic Michael Fassbender), a Northern Irish, nature-loving charmer who sweeps Mia’s mum off her feet and looks fondly on Mia, too. He’s quite a drinker, but when he’s around, Mia is cocooned in a soft, womb-like bubble. Even the music he likes — Bobby Womack’s version of California Dreamin’ — effortlessly cuts out the urban white noise.
The scenes between Connor and Mia are superb. Connor is an imperfect exotic, a parochial thinker who nevertheless opens up her world. “You dance like a black,” he tells her, then pauses. “That’s a compliment.” She is, as it happens, a very average mover, but when she dances for him — in a way that’s sexy without being sexualised — her bravery and vulnerability make you want to cry.
She thinks he knows what he’s doing, but it’s clear to us that Connor is all at sea. At moments like these, Fish Tank feels electrifyingly bold. And yet, taken as a whole, it’s frustrating.
Along with dancing, Mia also loves a white horse —kept chained, and apparently half-starved, on a nearby gypsy site. Here’s my advice: never trust a film with a white horse. White horses always represent purity and freedom in movies and their appearance is the sure sign of a knackered script.
Arnold’s last movie, the gut-wrenching Red Road, was full of surprises. In Fish Tank, you can see most of the set-pieces coming. The supporting characters lack substance and (for all the gags on display) there is something peculiarly humourless and portentous about the last act.
Like another brilliant Scot, Lynne Ramsay (whose 1999 debut, Ratcatcher, caused such a stir), Arnold winds up making the urban experience seem like a deadly disease. Run, run, little urchins, before poverty gets you! Such a doom-laden message, twinned with the brazenly poetic, nature-obsessed visuals, means Fish Tank will probably never reach the Mias of this world.
Instead, it’s the kind of treatise on deprivation that the comfortably-off love to applaud. A four-star treatise, but a missed opportunity all the same.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Morning:
14°c
