Presented in the fashion of a French New Wave film like Jules Et Jim or A Bout De Soufflé he gives Submarine an aurora of quirkiness and creativity that you rarely find in British cinema. ![]() What also excels Ayoade's film from being just another British coming of age story is the stylishness of his direction. It's essential to the story that she is a mystery to Oliver for much of Submarine's opening half, only revealing the reasons why she is so rebellious, unromantic and mischievous in the final act, and Page brilliantly portrays this with a careful mix of enigma, seductiveness and humanity. Similarly outstanding is Yasmin Page as his love interest Jordana. ![]() His character is a complex, multifaceted one yet he is able to make it wholly believable. The ups and downs of this British comedy are mainly due to Ayoade's wonderful screenplay and direction that are touching yet never slip into sentimentality - he often playfully pokes fun at it in many cases – but what also deserves credit are the poignant score by Arctic Monkey's singer Alex Turner, the cinematography that effortlessly shifts between comic framing and beautiful imagery and the note-perfect performances by the entire cast.Ĭraig Roberts plays Oliver Tate in a star-making performance that will surely see him become one of Britain's finest young actors in the next few years. I defy anyone to not see themselves plastered up on that silver screen in the film's opening as Oliver fantasises about the adoration and attention he'd receive if he died. Sure, it may sound somewhat similar to all the coming-of-age stories that have hit the cinema recently, but what makes Submarine so special is Richard Ayoade's ability to capture the essence of growing up the joy, the optimism and the tenderness alongside all the angst, confusion and depression too. It tells the story of Oliver Tate who is caught at the junction between childhood and adulthood as he struggles with his first feelings of love, desire, heartbreak and must choose what path he wishes to take that'll define who he is for the rest of his life. However, for those of you who, like me, were too young to witness the birth of these auteurs of independent cinema then you don't have to worry, because Richard Ayoade's film Submarine is almost as good as both of them put together. And maybe even those who witnessed Spike Jonze's big screen debut, Being John Malkovich, only a few years later will understand it too. Perhaps cinema-goers in the mid 1990s had this experience upon seeing Wes Anderson's first film Bottle Rocket. Because Craig Roberts and Yasmin Paige are enormously likable in their roles, they win our sympathy and make us realize that too many movies about younger teenagers are filtered through the sensibility of more weathered minds.There's nothing better than walking into a screen to see the debut film by a writer and director – one that you have only heard very little about – and walking away 90 minutes later feeling more moved, entertained and uplifted by a movie than you have been in years. It's a self-confident work for the first-time director, Richard Ayoade, whose purpose I think is to capture that delicate moment in some adolescent lives when idealism and trust lead to tentative experiments. It flaunts some stylistic devices, such as titles and sections and self-aware narration, but it doesn't try too hard to be desperately clever. "Submarine" isn't an insipid teen sex comedy. Simultaneously, Oliver very much wants to start having sex - with Jordana Bevan, who for now occupies all the space available in his mind for possible partners. He reports to us that his parents have stopped having sex and explains the ingenious method he used to figure this out. It is Oliver's concern that his mother may be growing too involved with Graham Purvis. ![]() Right now, she is entranced by a self-styled mystic named Graham Purvis ( Paddy Considine), who has the gift of holding an audience spellbound with utter nonsense he seems to make up as he goes along. His mother ( Sally Hawkins) is, like many Sally Hawkins characters, earnestly engaged in whatever occupies her. His father ( Noah Taylor) is an oddly quiet man, withdrawn, not quite there in the room. Their relationship begins with earnest exchanges of searching looks in the school corridor, and soon progresses to having dinner at Oliver's house when his parents aren't home. She isn't a tart, nor is she any more experienced than Oliver, but she's more confident. For example, she knows some of them need leadership or they will stew forever in self-doubt. Jordana understands this, and a great many other things about adolescent boys.
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