Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
15-year-old deep-thinking Welsh schoolboy Oliver Tate struggles to initiate and maintain a relationship with Jordana, his devilish, dark-haired classmate at their Swansea high school. As his parents' marriage begins to fall apart, similar problems arise in his relationship with Jordana.
Submarine is a distinctive, visually inventive coming-of-age film with a sharp, literary voice distinctly Richard Ayoade's own. The cinematography draws on French New Wave influences but feels fresh and singular, with carefully composed frames and witty visual gags. Craig Roberts delivers a remarkably deadpan, interior performance as Oliver, and Yasmin Paige is equally compelling as Jordana. The film's novelty is high — its tone, narration style, and Welsh suburban melancholy give it an unmistakable identity. The plot is a fairly conventional coming-of-age romantic drama beneath its stylistic flourishes, and the ending, while emotionally honest, is somewhat low-key and unresolved in ways that satisfy some but feel slightly anticlimactic to others.