20:10 Trashy Trashy Trashy
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 6:02PM Screen captures from the 20th minute and 10th second* of 2010 films as we close out the celluloid year by February's end.
"so baby if you want me | you've got to show me love. ♪ ♫"
Trashy Mom: I'm havin friends around later. I need you to stay in your rooms or get out. No kids -- the pair of ya!
Loud Preteen Daughter: What makes you think we want to hang around wi' your friend anyway? All those winos and skanks!
Sullen Teen Daughter: [silence]
I'm not sure I could pinpoint exactly why but I love Kierston Wareing as the single mom in Fish Tank (her angry daughters are going to grow up to be just like her) but maybe it's the absence of malevolence in her, just naturalistically portrayed selfish skankiness. She isn't out to hurt her children like so many terrible screen parents. She's just completely ill suited for the job.
Here's a great writeup of her performance at My New Plaid Pants. If you haven't seen Fish Tank, get right on it. It's so good. [See also: Nathaniel's 2010 Top Ten List.]
*I can't vouch for the time stamp damnit (!) as my two DVD players don't seem to line up timing wise. Argh. I love this series but I need it to be exact for OCD's sake.
Fish Tank, it's all in the timing
Reader Comments (4)
Totally agree! and don't get me started on the amazing Mr. Fassbender.
PS Kierston Wareing was also brilliant in Ken Loach's "It's a Free World"
You know, I wasn't nearly as gaga for Fish Tank as everyone else seemed to be, but I would agree that Jarvis and Fassbender were rather good. What I don't understand is the applause for Wareing. Is there something I missed? It was very one-note for me, but maybe I'm just being a dense movie-viewer...
Yes, it was one note. Being afraid to recognize one note parts is what started making everyone (I personally think Nat's a little guilty of it, even with his shouts of category fraud) accepting category fraud at least SOME of the time. Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right? Co-lead. Garfield in The Social Network? Co-lead. There's also the Academy's near refusal to accept anyone below 18 as a lead. (Steinfeld. I still don't get Steinfeld. And, really, I understand the tech noms (It is a western, after all), but True Grit has a few too many noms (editing, Director, Picture and Original Score are the biggest stretches for me. And Nat's right: They should have an adapted/song score category.)
I completely disagree about it being a one-note characterization from Wareing - I really got a sense of this woman in just the tiny glimpses we were given. Sure they were mostly glimpses that made you want to shield your eyes, but I felt a fully-rounded semi-despicable person living there on the screen. And I thought it was a nice way to play the character, as Nat expressed it, that she's not a cruel person, just too self-involved and ill-equipped to be where she's found herself. Arnold has a great way with undercutting the obvious notes with the depressingly human and Wareing's character really resonated in that way, for me at least. And it all kind of lifts off the ground in the final little dance between mother and daughters, I think, into something heartbreaking.
Thanks for the link, Nat.