Review of Submarine (2011) by Stevenf — 24 Feb 2013

Submarine delves into the delicate situations that a typical adolescent teen will most likely face as they approach the age of raging hormones and thinking they have the most difficult life imaginable, and of course, losing their virginity.

For the Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts), he often imagines himself outside of his own body, and with an opening segment of how he thinks (or how he wants to believe) that people would react to his death, this sets the tone for this fantastic coming-of-age film which is dangerously funny but subtly charming from debut director Richard Ayoade.

Of course, no teen melodrama is compete without the female presence, and Oliver longs after the broken Jordana (Yasmin Paige) who is, in most ways, the female counterpart of our young protagonist.

The film deals primarily with how an adolescent judges and acts upon common situations, whether it be in their own home or of course at school, and as Roberts narrates in a very detailed and logistic manner, we come to understand his characters life, his mother and fathers failing marriage, his awkward yet romantic relationship with Jordana and his struggles with trying to be accepted in school.

Submarine is told in a very fast-paced and artistic style, with the story-telling left to the talented actors and actresses in the form of Roberts, Paige, Noah Taylor and Paddy Considine.

The film avoids the usual routine of teen movies with the over- abundance of sexual frustration, the film does deal with this head on, but does so in a quirky and unorthodox away that is beneficial not only to the likeable leads, but also to the pacing of the stories and its originality.

Craig Roberts turn as the disgruntled teen is the standout of the film, he captures our imagination as to what crazy but meaningful things we have experimented on or considered in our younger days, and just how fast our mind can work when we are thrown into awkward or uncomfortable situations, he talks fast but gets the point across, and his analysis of scenarios that occur in his life are clever, but they don't try to throw in your face, thus making this film spontaneously funny, sometimes in the 'we maybe shouldn't laugh about that' moments, but his voice makes it seem ok to do so.

A well written, thoughtful and superbly acted film, incorporating dark comedic moments with artistic and unique filming that brings something fresh and intriguing to the teen drama.