Film Review: Submarine

A SUBLIME coming-of-age comedy based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne, Submarine plunges us down into the murky mind of its unreliable teenage narrator.

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A SUBLIME coming-of-age comedy based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne, Submarine plunges us down into the murky mind of its unreliable teenage narrator.

It is not that 15-year-old Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) can't be trusted. It's just that the tiny periscope through which he peers at the world around him is ever so slightly out of focus.

The kid is simply calling it as he sees it. The only trouble is, he has not yet lived enough to make any sense of it.

This is the universal truth of what it is like to be a teenager. You make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. You lie a little to cover your tracks. You think a lot about what you should do next.

It is a weird and mystical cycle. Should it ever end, you just might find you've become a fully-fledged adult. Worse things could happen.

In a coastal town in Wales in the mid-1980s, about the worst thing that could happen to Oliver is outright rejection by his schoolyard crush, Jordana Bevan (Yasmin Paige).

To Oliver's never-ending relief, this spiky, moody young woman allows him to become her boyfriend. Kind of.

To Oliver's never-ending dismay, every minute spent with Jordana is a test that must be passed. Not just any old test. A final exam where she won't give him a good look at the questions; but Oliver still has to come up with the right answers.

If his nerves aren't already shot, Oliver must also process the distinct possibility his parents' marriage is falling apart.

The first tell-tale sign is that the dimmer switch in their bedroom is no longer in regular use.

Now Oliver's mum (Sally Hawkins) is openly fawning over an old flame (Paddy Considine), who has moved in down the street.

And Oliver's dad (Noah Taylor) - just like his son - is too lost in his own thoughts to figure out what to do.

While this is undoubtedly all familiar territory to be covered, there is a freshness of perspective at work here that is a joy to take in.

First-time writer-director Richard Ayoade (best known in Australia as Moss on TV comedy The IT Crowd) achieves a perfect balance between the bizarre and the bittersweet that is utterly irresistible throughout.

A uniquely strange, yet totally accessible comic sensibility, fused by a brilliant script to a brace of pitch-perfect performances seals the deal.

Overall effect? Every dumb thing you did (or might be yet to do) as a youth will come rushing at you in all its awkward glory.

The best film of its kind since Wes Anderson's 1998 masterpiece Rushmore. One of the true gems of 2011 awaits you here.

VISIT warp.net/films/submarine

Submarine (M)
Director: Richard Ayoade (feature debut)
Starring: Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor and Sally Hawkins (above), Paddy Considine
What seems so shallow can be so deep
4 Stars