Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Submarine (2010)

Submarine (2010)
Submarine (2010)

Genre: Comedy / Drama
Director: Richard Ayoade
Starring: Noah Taylor, Paddy Considine, Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Sally Hawkins
Duration: 97 min.
Rating: 6.6

Summary:
Meet Oliver Tate, a precocious 15-year-old whose worldview is exceedingly clever and largely delusional (he imagines the outpouring of grief that would spread through Wales if he died). Oliver carries a briefcase, doesn't agree with everything Nietzsche said but concedes that he had some interesting points, peruses the dictionary for new words (flagitious, adj, wickedly shameful), and suspects his mother of having an affair with their New Age neighbor. But foremost on Oliver's mind is finding a girlfriend. Enter Jordana Bevan.



Submarine is the feature film debut from director Richard Ayoade, based on a novel of the same name by Joe Dunthorne.  It premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

An offbeat coming of age film set in Wales, Submarine follows the story of Oliver (Craig Roberts) a teenager struggling with the age old trials of youth, including meeting his first girlfriend, Jordana (Yasmin Paige), and worrying about the state of his parents' rocky marriage, complicated by their new neighbor Graham (Paddy Considine) who is his mother's ex-boyfriend.

It's stylish and takes obvious influences from various indie comedies most notably the work of Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, and even borrows a bit from the French New Wave, but just fails to really stand out on its own.  With a light self aware narrative that is mostly charming and clever enough, but at times feels like it tries to hard to be cool and quirky.  The characters are also not nearly as endearing as the director would like us to believe and its difficult to really like any of them.

Still it is a decent first effort with some beautiful cinematography and a strong soundtrack with several songs written for the film by Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys.

Submarine (2010)

Submarine (2010)

Submarine (2010)

Submarine (2010)

Submarine (2010)

Submarine (2010)

Submarine (2010)

Submarine (2010)

21 comments:

canvas picture said...

I loved it but I was able to identify with the lead character.. I think it's the sign of a good film when it provokes strong opinions for and against.

moviesandsongs365 said...

I agree, the soundtrack was nice. I thought the first half of Submarine was stronger, for me kind of lost
its way midway. Will probably gain a cult "tumblr" following like
"Ghost World" or "Eagle vs. shark" did for all the little details in the
background ( : 

Hermann Rorschach said...

Well, I mean that at my age, I don't really care what the youth is having to deal with until my son is that age.  :D

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Matt.  Yeah I don't know, it seems most people did like this one.  I hope you get the chance to watch it soon.

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

That sort of personality may get you a girl, but not a nice one.

Matt S. said...

Good review Bonjour, from what I have heard of this film I am surprised you rated it so low. I am personally extremely eager to see it, though it did not release in theaters near me.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I don't necessarily have to be able to relate to the story to enjoy it, but you do have a point there...

Hermann Rorschach said...

I've never seen the word "urgent" used in a promo before.  ("It's urgent you see this film!")
Maybe it is because I am far removed from any "coming of age" benchmarks that these types of movies don't appeal to me.  I am leery of films billed as "charming."

blahblahblahtoby said...

having now seen this film i can safely state that you didnt need to have seen the IT crowd before watching. the style and humour are totally different.

however i think i enjoyed it slightly more than you. whilst you won't find me gushing over it like a lot of reviewers it is still head and shoulders above a lot of movies that come out of the uk and most of the movies i seem to watch recently.

and yeah it was charming without having likeable characters, that is a film making feat.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks for that Toby.  I always appreciate hearing another opinion on here.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Even though I didn't quite fall for this one, I still recognize his talent and also look forward to seeing what he does next. 

Max Covill said...

I primarily was interested in this film because the IT Crowd (I see a commonality going on here). I actually thought it was amusing even if the ending was in the ocean was a little far gone. I'm excited to see Richard Ayoade's next film, which I heard is casting now. 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

It did seem to have a lot of good buzz, I just didn't click with it.  I caught it at the cinema the other day, it's showing on one screen in my city. 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I've never seen the show before.   Maybe I would have liked the film better if I did?

The Angry Lurker said...

Heard nothing but good things about this but I believe you're review is nearer the mark.

d_4 said...

Yep. He doesn't seem likable to me. Not when you wrote about him and not when I saw him in action. Sometimes that's necessary, but eh.

The Reel Foto said...

i've heard awesome things about movie. :)

blahblahblahtoby said...

as custard says even if it's just for moz directing a movie this has some interest. a lot of bloggers really liked this film, i'm intrigued further and am hopeful that i can get to a screening at the rpiff this week to review it myself. did you see this on dvd?

FrontRoomCinema said...

I am still pretty interested in this film, even if it is out of curiosity to see what the geek out of the IT crowd has done directionally.

Custard

Bonjour Tristesse said...

and not just the lead, I felt that way about almost all of the main characters. 

Tony Van Helsing said...

This does look excellent. I am a big fan of Richard Ayoade's comedy acting and will watch this film.

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