10 Criminally Underrated Films Turning 10 Years Old In 2020

4. Fish Tank

Jennifer Lawrence Winter's Bone
BBC Films

Andrea Arnold’s streetwise kitchen sink drama took its working class waltz themes from Billy Elliot and brought them to the screen with even starker realism and impact.

Arnold’s sophomoric debut centres on isolated teen Mia – a breakthrough Kate Jarvis – as she traverses playground pitfalls and clashes with her own family as she aims to land a dream job as a dancer. Memorable for its simply-framed dance sequences, where Mia’s loneliness is poised in a disused tower block, and a suitably sleazy turn from Michael Fassbender the story takes enough unexpected turns to keep you engaged and hits you with an affecting finale.

If you think this new decade is already looking a bit loopy, just remember that Step Up 3D came out the same year as this one and made $159,289,358 compared to Fish Tank’s - still impressive - £1,000,000. We’ll leave you to decide which movie threw shapes better.

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Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing. He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.