Review of Submarine (2011) by J.j. W — 26 Jun 2012

The story of Oliver Tate is, while very easily relatable to the young adolescent demographic, unfortunately very uninteresting. It's a tough movie to judge because some of the most well crafted experiences were from movies with seemingly boring premises but there's just something about Submarine that seemed difficult to get invested in.

Oliver Tate himself is a one note character: not exactly a nerd but a definite social misfit that tries to survive his mid school life who is awkward and constantly over analyze. Yet, the didactic monologue feels very mundane at times and Oliver's own analogies and metaphors aren't really as clever as the filmmakers think they are.

As Oliver's life starts to fall apart and his monologues just continue and continue in a monotonous tone, it actually makes the entire situation feel a little more trivial. Whether this misstep in acting is the actor's fault or the director's fault is hard to decipher.

But the film just over monologues everything, even the character revelations where the audience would be able to figure out what is occurring. Visually, Submarine is quite stunning, if not a little heavy handed at times.

Yet there's a nice poetry to the visual surrealistic presentation of Oliver Tate's life. If only the writers didn't feel the need to explain every little bit of detail with overly elaborate metaphors.

It's fortunate that there are quite a lot of sincere moments within this movie that still makes the viewing experience worthwhile. Submarine isn't an exercise, it's a sincere attempt at capturing the adolescent turmoil.

It's just over reaches itself here and there.