“Submarine” isn’t just the anti-teen romance, it’s actually a film that doesn’t glamorize the romance even though it’s essentially about falling in love and losing love. Almost like a lost Wes Anderson film, director Richard Ayoade’s dramedy is a bold cinematic venture that dares to defy any preconceived freshman notions about his film making and fully grasps on to pretension (featuring title cards and monotonous narration et al). This is basically because our main protagonist Oliver is anything but a humble heroic young man. In actuality, he’s very much filled with enormous pretension, and enough self-loathing to garner expectations from the girls of his dreams that are rock bottom.
There’s even a moment where Oliver fully fantasizes about what the consequences of his own death would bring to where a fully realized reincarnation in the vein of Christ leads in to an group of young women mourning him. Thankfully, “Submarine” doesn’t subscribe to notion that every character has to look like a super model, thus we’re introduced to a world of flawed individuals where even the most beautiful are indeed imperfect. Resident ladies man Ninja is played by one of my favorite actors Paddy Considine who scores women left and right (even with his goofy coif and pug nose), while Oliver’s love interest Jordana is indeed a bold young girl filled with bravado whose own true flaw is eczema.
It’s a scaly and often disgusting imperfection that she manages to hide well under her clothing much like her flaws and innate desire to care for people, even when we’re convinced she can’t be any crueler to Oliver than she already is. Oliver’s journey is a trite but important one where he’s at the crux of his development where he’s realizing that the people around him are indeed imperfect beings and he must view them as fallible and flawed. This leads us in to Oliver’s journey with his romance with Yasmine, the school hotty who at first blackmails Oliver in to displaying affection for her, but soon grows a fondness for him and his imperfect union with her.
It soon becomes Oliver trying to manipulate a relationship that can withstand the test of time unlike his parents, while Yasmine reveals layers beneath her inherent cruelty and mean spirited attitude that Oliver may or may not be prepared for. It soon becomes about breaking shells and finding out something about ourselves that we’re not probably ready to confront. “Submarine” is a very heartfelt and unique film about love that isn’t bogged down by fashion and stylized sensibilities that sugarcoat the inevitabilities of long term relationships and blossoming romances and is a very sharp coming of age story that will live long as a cult classic. Though pretentious and somewhat trite a tale, “Submarine” is a very pleasing and utterly remarkable teen dramedy that focuses on the imperfections and how they make up our every relationships be they with parents or the girl of our dreams. I look forward to more from director Richard Ayoade.