Submarine

Film: Submarine
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Director: Richard Ayoade
Year: 2010
Starring: Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, & Noah Taylor





For most of us being a teenager is awkward and confusing. Movies have been expressing this kind of feeling for a long time, making itself really known in the 80's, via the work of John Hughes, but these kinds of film have existed before the era of bright colors and bad haircuts. On top of that, this film is about the adolescence of a young British (Welsh to be more specific) man, dealing with his life in his own way.

The film is based on a novel of the same name by Joe Dunthorne, and is the coming-of-age story of a young Welshman named Oliver Tate(Roberts). Like most teens, Oliver isn't the most popular kid in school, but he also isn't the most outcast or spat upon, he seems to remain more in the middle. He has a crush on a girl in his class named Jordana(Paige), and uses his imagination and general teen urges to get him to fall for him, even though it requires him to throw the class outcast into a pond. Along with his romantic desires, he deals with the apparently failing marriage between his parents, which only gets worse when his mother's old flame moves in next door.

As with many teenagers, Oliver is far more clever and charismatic in his head than he is in reality. His narration of events is well constructed and preformed with great poise and grace, while his actual speech is often quiet and slightly-bumbling. There is a scene where he gives his girlfriend a stack of books which he wants her to read, thinking the books will make him appear more cultured and sophisticated than in reality. Even his physical movements are of that young and awkward age, he stands stiffly, rarely looking relax about anything.

Overall, the film is very good. It has the same feel as one of Wes Anderson's films, though it's much less colorful, perhaps as a way of responding to the Welsh environment that Oliver lives in, and has to deal with. Though in general the film lacks color, there are a few colors which are brought out, primarily blue(Oliver's room is blue, compared to his parents and the rest of the house, which are all beige), and the red of Jordana's jacket which makes her stand out whenever she appears on screen. Also, the film itself can be very funny, despite its subject matter, much like Anderson's films, with cleverly written lines sprinkled throughout, keeping with its more dramatic tone.

Memorable Moments:
• In the prologue Oliver mentions the fact that he sometimes daydreams about what would happen if he died. The following fantasy of thousands of people mourning his death, despite him not being well known, or even liked that much.