Early in the Welsh comedy Submarine it’s a delight to find 15-year-old Oliver Tate gauging the movement of the dimmer switch in his parents’ bedroom to determine whether they are still sexually active. One half expects the assured yet determinedly serious teen to burst in one night proclaiming his discovery directly to his parents. Not quite. Instead Oliver (an excellent Craig Roberts) has up his sleeve a plan to thwart Mom’s increasingly ominous overtures to back-in-town former boyfriend Graham Purvis (Paddy Considine), a painful mystic. Graham also has a mullet, a large van, and a phoniness veiled by his showmanship ability to fool audiences with nonsense like sticking martial arts moves into his talks at the oddest times.
Oliver is not above cooking up suggestive love letters pretending to be from his dour scientist Dad (Noah Taylor) to his attention-seeking Mom (a usually reliable Sally Hawkins), who’s often hip to his ways. Oliver also pleas to his Dad to stand up to Mom once her apparent tomfoolery with Graham steps up a notch. Oliver makes no bones about delivering the admonition to Dad while in earshot of Mom. This scene (and many others) could have been merely ridiculous in the wrong hands, but director Richard Ayoade pulls it off with a refreshingly whimsical elan. Submarine pays tribute to the eternal adolescent who never quite fits in.
An equally strong parallel plot pits Oliver’s wits against those of newly found, equally tortured girlfriend Jordana (Yasmin Paige), who hates anything romantic. Their scenes together have a texture of realness. Determined to lose his virginity to her, our clever, deadpan Oliver is provided a mix tape by Dad. It offers musical interludes in tandem with relationshp changing events and it’s pretty good stuff by Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys). A fair amount of sudden zooms, freeze frams, split screens, and the acting out of “What-If” scenes keep things lively amidst the general downbeat mood.
All in all Submarine is an often funny, memorable treatment of an offbeat coming-of-age offered in the stylized vein of Rushmore. First-time director British standup comic Ayoade, is known for his performance as the nerdiest character in the BBC comedy, The IT crowd. Here he not only gets nerd right with Oliver, he surrounds him with other main characters equally dorkish, including all the adults.
8.8 Welshes out of 10
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