The Criterion Collection

“Andrea Arnold has already become one of Britain’s most revered directors you’ve never heard of,” writes Neil Karassik in Eye Weekly. Arnold makes human dramas that are vivid and alive, none more so than the jarring Fish Tank, an intense story of a teenage girl's coming-of-age in the Essex housing projects that's now available from Criterion. Though Fish Tank can fairly easily be slotted into the “kitchen-sink” subgenre of British realist films, according to Karassik, “Fish Tank refuses to be pigeonholed. Neither cynical nor sentimental, it paints a hopeless portrait of Britain’s stark underbelly without drawing any easy conclusions.” For Brian Orndorf of DVD Talk, Fish Tank is “a dynamite film,” “a fantastic symphony of characters,” and “a pungent display of teenage life.” For Brandon DuHamel at Blu-ray Definition, the film is “moving and wholly enthralling. Highly recommended.” And DVD Verdict’s Patrick Bromley concludes, “Fish Tank is the kind of movie that sneaks up on you—one that seems slight and unassuming as it unfolds, but which gradually builds to deliver some major emotional blows.”

Also: Read Interview’s Durga Chew-Bose on the film.