Submarine
Directed by Richard Ayoade
Starring Craig Roberts, Yasmine Paige, Sally Hawkins, Noah Taylor, Paddy Considine
By Mary Lyn Maiscott
“Don’t mix family and bush,” Oliver Tate’s loose-limbed, fast-talking best friend, Chips, tells him, along with other dubious advice. Oliver (Craig Roberts), 15, is doing just the opposite: trying to seduce the quirky, strong-willed Jordana Bevan (Yasmine Paige) while also keeping track of his troubled parents’ sex life (by the scientific method of charting their bedroom dimmer setting). Set in scenic Wales—though Oliver says he doesn’t “believe in scenery”—Submarine is pretty quirky itself: Oliver’s parents (Sally Hawkins, so good in Made in Dagenham, and Noah Taylor) are so tamped-down as to be nearly ridiculous (yet they remain funny and touching); his mom’s former love Graham (Paddy Considine), their new neighbor, is a spiky-haired New Age pseudo-guru whose third eye appears to be a wandering one; and Oliver and Jordana’s dates consist of setting small fires amid industrial debris. With sets occasionally reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s—the Tates eat their quiet meals in the shadow of a giant, bubbling aquarium, and Oliver “decorates” his room with submarine drawings, model planes, and a skeleton wearing an Indian headdress—canny original songs by Alex Turner (the Arctic Monkeys), and some smart camerawork, this literate film (its hero even likes to read the dictionary) could be the one Oliver’s been yearning for: “I have been waiting too long for the film of my life.…There will be slo-mo, but also transcendent moments…” Watch for executive producer Ben Stiller making a brief appearance on a TV screen.
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