Misfit teen living in a 'Fish Tank'

A bit of guilt comes with watching the British teen drama “Fish Tank.” Writer-director Andrea Arnold (“Red Road”) has created something so real and raw, you may come away with a twinge of guilty voyeurism, a sense of peering too closely and impolitely into other people’s lives.

“Fish Tank” is a small wonder of social realism that is riveting and harrowing, yet in the end, enormously satisfying.

Arnold made a remarkable find with her teen lead, Katie Jarvis, who had not acted before but proves a natural, at least for the sort of honest intensity the filmmaker needed to anchor the story.

The 15-year-old Mia is a youth in trouble on all fronts, at home, at school, among her circle of ex-friends.

A teen with dancing aspirations, Mia practices her moves alone in a vacant apartment in the crumbling housing projects of Essex, east of London. She wanders the deteriorating town, picking fights with just about anyone she meets, occasionally turning up at the apartment where she lives and bickers with her single mom (Kierston Wareing) and younger sister (Rebecca Griffiths).

Mom’s new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender, “Inglourious Basterds”), becomes both someone new to confront and an intriguing mix of father figure and dream suitor to Mia.

The drama unfolds like a train wreck waiting to happen, Arnold takes her characters to the brink and beyond as Mia and Connor test the bounds of appropriate behavior involving a teen no longer a girl, not yet a woman.

Extreme things happen, yet it all feels genuine, even inevitable, thanks to the devoted, fearless cast and Arnold’s attention to detail, which helps “Fish Tank” unfold like actual lives playing out on-screen.