Submarine (2010)

Most teen romance coming-of-age movies are completely predictable, especially the American ones. High school student, Oliver Tate, as played by Craig Roberts, reminded of an equally quirky Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate." He wanders throughout this comedy with a wisdom far greater than those around him. He spies on his very strange mother & father and tries to keep a relationship with his girlfriend, Jordana(Yasmin Paige) going with very mixed results.

Writer-Director Richard Ayoade does a great job of keeping the pace moving with no wasted moments & a dialogue that is both witty & believable at the same time.

If you are in the mood for a film which will make you smile and even bring back some childhood memories, this a perfect choice; Ayoade is to be commended for a wonderful movie & I eagerly await his next project.

Fmovies: It starts well but soon deteriorates. The narrator and lead is practically indistinguishable from Adrian Mole and whilst this could be deployed as a strength it actually turns out to be a weakness. There is something inherently funny about the seriousness of teenage earnestness but the development in this film strays into mawkishness and constantly fails to capitalise on the comedic potential of the story.

Time passes pleasantly enough whilst watching the film but leaves you feeling unsatisfied. It's neither sufficiently quirky to be endearing nor funny enough to be worthwhile as an outright comedy. It's well acted and uses some interesting visual approaches to convey its message but none of them carry conviction. It would pass muster as a TV special but isn't good enough to warrant a theatrical release.

Must try harder.

I had the pleasure of seeing this film at The Toronto film festival a few nights ago and I absolutely loved it! I had no expectations going in, since it was the directorial debut for Richard Ayoade. He did a wonderful job with this film. It was beautifully shot and directed and the cast, although unknowns to me were unbelievably good! I didn't understand a few jokes since I didn't understand a bit of the British humour, but most of the jokes were universally understandable which is great. Overall I gave it a 9 out of 10 and I can't wait until it gets distributed worldwide so I can see it again. I hope Richard Ayoade starts working on another film soon, because I'm excited to see what else he can do.

Submarine fmovies. Dead pan humour is the order of the day with Submarine. Understated lines such as "my mum gave a hand job to a mystic" could go unnoticed by an inattentive audience; every exchange has a hidden reward if picked up on. There are of course obvious jokes throughout, however the true comedy is found in Oliver Tate's voice over and interactions.

Casting Craig Roberts as Oliver Tate was a masterstroke and much of the film's success is based on his performance. The imaginative and peculiar schoolboy analyses everything, often conjuring up fictional events which parody mainstream movies. In one such hypothetical situation he sees Jordana (Yasmin Paige) by the shore and runs to her, meanwhile his narration explains that it isn't her standing there, a stranger turns around.

Submarine is a simple coming of age story, without the solid plot of the British film veterans. A little slow paced on occasion, it could have done with an extra thread of story. In essence the narrative follows two strands, the relationship between Oliver and Jordana and between Oliver and his family. Trying to date Jordana and reignite the spark between his parents isn't a small task, not that that fazes Oliver.

Submarine is devilishly funny, a true gem and I hope it doesn't stay under the radar of most cinema goers for much longer.

Whilst watching Richard Ayoade playing uber-nerd Moss in the hit-and- miss sitcom The IT Crowd, or playing TV producer and actor Dean Lerner in the criminally underrated Garth Merenghi's Darkplace, the last thing I pictured him doing was confidently directing a feature-length film. I don't mean to knock him, as I've always felt he was an extremely talented comedy performer and writer, and he brightens up whatever he appears in, no matter how crap the material. But here he has focused all his ambition, influences and talent into creating a truly memorable debut.

Tate (Craig Roberts), a strange, intelligent and unnervingly confident schoolboy who falls for an equally strange girl Jordana (Yasmin Paige). After an incident which sees Oliver reluctantly participate in a spot of casual bullying that causes a girl to fall into a muddy pond, Oliver and Jordana begin their unusual romance. All seems to be going well until Oliver suspects his mother Jill (Sally Hawkins) of having an affair with cheesy self-help guru Graham (Paddy Considine), who lives next door. His father Lloyd (Noah Taylor) is so passive and uncaring that he is practically a zombie, and so Oliver takes it upon himself to rescue his parent's broken marriage whilst holding his own fragile relationship together.

The film arrives amidst critical praise and festival word-of-mouth, and the promise of a real future talent in director Richard Ayoade. I'm pleased to announce that the film is every bit as good as I've heard. I had my doubts, concerned with the film's 'quirky indie comedy' tag that films are so lazily lumbered with these days. But while the film is quirky, indie and a comedy, it finds its influences lying elsewhere - from the greatest of all film movements, the French New Wave. From the start this is clear with the Godard-esque large lettering with strong colours for the opening credits and title cards. Everything about the film screams New Wave, from its stylistic boldness, self-awareness, and even the unconventionally handsome and turtle-neck-wearing leading man.

One of the main strengths of the film is it's awareness of slipping into cliché. The quirkiness and magic of the French New Wave have been copied and ripped-off so often that nowadays when it is used it can come across as pretentious. But Oliver's intelligence and amusing voice-over frequently touches on this. At the start of his relationship with Jordana, they spend their days on the beach and frequenting industrial wastelands, and Oliver comments that he will put these moments in his 'Super 8 memories', cue shots of the couple running and laughing on the beach, shot in that grainy, home-video look. He also fantasises that he is in a film, and that the film will end up with him searching for Jordana on a beach and how it will end in an arty-farty, pretentious manner aimed to encourage discussion among chin-strokers. It's a great little trick and you have to admire the film's refreshing self- assurance.

The film is also very, very funny, with Craig Roberts proving an extremely talented comedy performer, all pale-skinned, wide-eyed awkwardness, and a pronounced, high pitched voice that almost resembles many of Ayoade's TV characters. The humour is often similar in style to Wes Anderson's (dare I say it?) indie comedies, which are some of the best comedies, if not films, to come out in the last fifteen years. Most of the humour stems from Oliver's increasing desperation to lose his virginity to Jordana,

"Submarine" is Welsh. It opens, at least in North America it does, with a letter from its protagonist (Oliver) to Americans; educating us that Wales is a country located next to England. Although thankful that America has not yet invaded his country, Oliver informs us that this is an important film which we should treat with the utmost respect.

Don't worry, it's okay to laugh; you're supposed to. This is a teen coming-of-age comedy. Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is like a young, Welsh hero of a Wes Anderson film. Gangly and awkward he struggles with popularity in school, but when he imagines his own funeral, the entire country mourns. He bullies one girl to try and impress another but then writes a long letter not so much repenting his guilt but teaching her how to be cool. The dialogue, like Oliver, is precocious but hilarious with a surprisingly fresh feel considering how tired the genre has become.

Oliver tries to win the girl and become the best boyfriend in the world, and he also has to be the best son in the world to save his parents' marriage. In both adventures, he uses psychology books (usually found in routine searches of his parents' bedroom) to ensure his actions accurately reflect his intentions. If you can guess how his plans may go awry, then you are the right audience for this very funny film.

His father, Lloyd (Noah Taylor) is a depressed marine biologist, while his mother Jill (Sally Hawkins) is inappropriately attracted to their neighbour, an old boyfriend of hers. He's a mystic, theatrical performer, and Oliver and Lloyd are the only ones that see it for the nonsense that it is. Lloyd is like a grown-up, Welsh hero of a Wes Anderson film and I loved how they included the father of the protagonist as a main character and showed that although he was more mature, still not any more in tune with the ways of the world around him.

It has some slightly dark twists, but "Submarine" succeeds because it never lets up the humour or the quirky tone. Funny? Yes. Important? No, but I certainly get the joke.