Submarine
Richard Ayoade goes down the irony-heavy route for his directorial debut – but his comedy about a Swansea teenager's love life is also sweet and very funny.
(...) The star is Craig Roberts, playing Oliver Tate, a duffelcoat-wearing loner at school who doesn't hesitate to join in the bullying of an overweight girl whom he had secretly got off with at last term's wild-west-themed disco. This he does in order to impress Jordana who wears a faintly disturbing red coat. (...) They get together, and the resulting placidity and comfort settles them both. But there are complications. Oliver's parents Lloyd and Jill are experiencing a marital crisis triggered by the appearance of Jill's old flame Graham, a dynamic new age self-help guru who runs seminars and sells motivational videos about one's colour-aura. Jordana's mother Jude is also seriously ill.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Nothing special distinguishes Oliver Tate, except a fondness for narrating in anxious voiceover and visualising his mundane life as a film, complete with references to camera angles. [H]e feels that his story calls for a sweeping crane shot, but admits, "Unless things get better, the biopic of my life will only have the budget for a zoom out" – which, of course, is what the camera gives us.
Jonathan Romney, The Independent
Duration: 94 min
Dialogue: English
Age limit: K15
