Submarine
2011 · Directed by Richard Ayoade
Original language: English
- drama
- comedy
- romance
The story
15-year-old deep-thinking Welsh schoolboy Oliver Tate struggles to initiate and maintain a relationship with Jordana, his devilish, dark-haired classmate at their Swansea high school. As his parents' marriage begins to fall apart, similar problems arise in his relationship with Jordana.
What it’s like
Stylised and deadpan, with a hand-built quirkiness: static, symmetrical compositions where characters sit dead centre in washed-out rooms, sudden wide shots of grey Welsh coastline, and a retro-tinted palette of muted browns, faded yellows and pale sea-greys that feels like a damp seaside summer half-remembered. Its humour is dry and awkward, with the Pixies-tinged, sparse soundtrack and oddly placed needle-drops giving it a wry, melancholy hum, and its pacing is loose and episodic, drifting between schoolyard embarrassment and fantasy-tinged interludes. The mood is bittersweet and self-conscious: a sensitive, overthinking teenage boy trying to make sense of a crumbling family and a first crush, slowly learning to be honest with himself. Intensity is moderate: bullying, a suicide-adjacent stretch of teen anxiety, sex and nudity handled frankly but not explicitly, some swearing and a few brief, sharp moments of physical clumsiness and humiliation, but no gore. It suits a rainy weekend, a wry late-night watch, or anyone who enjoys quirky coming-of-age films with an unsentimental heart, and it is for viewers who like outsider humour that is warm underneath the deadpan.
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