Submarine is a remarkably fresh satire

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      Starring Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins, and Noah Taylor. Rated PG. Opens Friday, June 17, at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas

      The smartly crafted Submarine is doubly impressive because its initial premise—welcome to the pretentious autobiography of a self-aggrandizing 15-year-old!—begs for deflation, not respect.

      Despite his unreasonably optimistic, Adrian Mole–like voice-overs, young Oliver Tate (talented Craig Roberts)—a Harry Potter type with zero special powers—is not really in charge of anything in Swansea, perched on an industrial stretch of the bleak Welsh Coast. Currently, his so-called life is complicated by the long-blooming marital breakdown of his parents, prissy Jill and socially awkward ocean scientist Lloyd, played beyond perfection by Happy-Go-Lucky’s Sally Hawkins and Australian vet Noah Taylor. Now, Jill is further distracted by new neighbour Graham Purvis (Paddy Considine, hilarious), a former flame and now a mullet-headed self-help guru.

      Currently, Oliver is struggling to find the mental space to woo classmate Jordana (Yasmin Paige), an oddly vivacious antiromantic and part-time pyromaniac who also looks alarmingly like him. From the posters on his bedroom walls, we know the mop-haired lad is heavily influenced by arty French flicks and early Woody Allen. In his mind, it makes perfect sense to bring a first date to The Passion of Joan of Arc.

      Like Oliver, Submarine is far more than the sum of highfalutin influences. Adapted from Joe Dunthorne’s novel by writer-director Richard Ayoade (a popular Brit-TV comic of African-Scandinavian background), the movie is built comfortably enough atop teen-movie conventions to allow them to go pear-shaped at times. For example, when Lloyd gives his son a mix tape representing his own romantic history (in the 1960s, presumably), it consists entirely of folky new tunes by Alex Turner, lead singer of the Arctic Monkeys. Skimming below such clever surfaces, however, this remarkably fresh work of satire captures the swooningly serious emotions of the adolescent heart.


      Watch the trailer for Submarine.

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