The Film Review:
The Film Review:SUBMARINE sees the feature debut from writer/director Richard Ayoade best known as Moss in Channel 4?s IT CROWD. What people might not know is he has one of the most promising young British filmmakers walking around today and this film proves it.
Adapted from the Joe Dunthorne book of the same name, SUBMARINE is the story of high school adolescence with all it’s universal awkwardness. Oliver Tate lives in Swansea, Wales, and is very much the loner. He spies on his parents, creating flow charts of their sexually activity and varying forms of depression while at the same time fuelling his Mother, Jill (Sally Hawkins/HAPPY GO LUCKY), neurosis with pharse such as “My body is a shell. I’ve been dead for years”. At school he wonders the playground in his duffel coat dreaming up ways to ensnare a girlfriend to up his ‘street credit’. He zeroes in on Jordana (Yasmin Paige/MURDERLAND) a bully loving, pyromaniac with eczema. To woo her he decides to torment the local fat girl, something he doesn’t wish to do but it gets the job done. Whilst winning over the girl he also attempts to save his parents marriage from a new age ninja, self help nieghbour played by Paddy Considine (DEADMAN’S SHOES). The journey of keeping his parents together and being the perfect boyfriend is in no way smooth and Oliver learns that he can’t solve everything, especially when faced with Jordana’s Mother’s brain tumour and Jill’s infidelity.
SUBMARINE is and will be continuously compared to that of American filmmakers such as Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach with the films inherent coolness. But the big difference between those and that of Ayoade is he does not seem to be trying to make it cool, looking to put the story and characters first rather than style. The characters are far more endearing than the previous mentioned filmmakers who usually have characters you just wish to punch in the face such as in GREENBERG. That being said the film is produced by Ben Stiller and features probably the briefest cameo in film history from the man. There is a beautiful graininess to the film as well creating a less polished and perfect feel to the feature. It is good to see that Ayoade isn’t afraid of trying lots of different filming techniques which for the most part work such as when the girl being bullied falls into a pond and everything freezes. Unlike American high school films or TV shows the film is painfully true to what it is actually like such as being made to read out notes passed to you saying ‘whoever reads this rides cock’ or you stand up to the bully but they make you submit and get you to announce that your a gaylord.
The characters themselves are all fantastically acted out with their perfectly formed unique quirks which at times are humorous and other times heartbreaking. Considine as the new age neighbour plays the buffoon of a character beautifully without going overboard and the leading lady of Jordana is fresh and exciting since she is not idolised as the perfect girl but instead is seen as a possibly unlikeable person who enjoys cruelty, burning peoples leg hair and none of the mushy stuff. Thankfully Yasimin Paige has such charisma that you can forgive all her negative points and hope her and Oliver live happily ever after.
This film, along with Edgar Wright should be the future of British cinema as they are beating the pants of filmmakers such as Danny Boyle, Guy Ritchie and Ridley Scott bringing us hugely enjoyable films on so many different levels.
— Paul Koren
The DVD/ Blu-Ray Review:
SUBMARINE is a very visual movie, and the Blu-Ray (the format on which we are viewing the film) is simply stunning. As we load the disc we are treated to three trailers that automatically play. They are for ATTACK THE BLOCK, FOUR LIONS and BUNNY AND THE BULL. These are presented in full HD quality and can easily be bypassed using the forward button on your remote, though strangely not via hitting the menu button. Still, these are all superb movies that, if you haven’t already, really should try and track down.
The BD’s menus are fully animated and feature the five main characters in the film. On the main menu, you have options to access the usual scene selections, audio options and visual setup (which includes oddly an option to display colour bars…). There is also an option to display English HOH subtitles too.
On the extras side of things,we firstly have a featurette called ‘Through The Prism,’ which runs for just over 16 minutes. The feature featured the character Graham Purvis, played by the legendary Paddy Considine. The feature looks like it has been shot on VHS or the like, and mainly contains of Purvis relaying musings to camera, interview style. It’s very Ben Stiller (who executive produced the film), and has a very retro-80’s feel about it. Funny stuff.
We also get access to a message sent to the cast and crew br Ben Stiller, which as always is funny and obviously intended to be an uplifting message to the guys on set in the middle of a massive 40-day-shoot.
There are interviews on the disc with every single lead and supporting actor. We get thoughts from Craig Roberts, Paddy Considine, Yasmin Paige, Sally Hawkins, Noah Taylor, Andy Stebbing and Mark Herbert. All are to camera, and seemingly are from the generic EPKs issued at the time of release. All talk about their own characters in the film, and are generally interesting to watch.
The Loco Q+A button on the menu will take you through to a Q+A with the cast and Ayaode at the London Comedy festival. Again, it’s fairly entertaining, but the picture and sound quality is very poor. There is also a similar Q+A from the Glasgow Film festival, which is a lot better in terms of quality, and again features the cast and director. This runs for just under 12 minutes.
Rounding off the extras, we have the usual extended and deleted scenes from the film, and a ‘test shoot’ feature, which was shot before the main body of filming. This is full HD quality, and is cut as if it were a proper scene from the film. It features Roberts’ character of Tate carrying a breifcase under a railway line meeting Yasmin Paige’s character, Jordana. The scene is a little under four minutes in length, and is a nice little extra. The only thing that the footage lacks is a little colour correction/ treatment, but is very good in terms of photography/ sound and editing.
Lastly, we have a music video ‘Piledriver Waltz,’ by Alex Turner. Shot on super 8, the video fits in with the movie perfectly, and gives you an idea of Turner’s superb contribution to the movie. We love it so much, we posted it below.
SUBMARINE is a superb little ‘surprise’ indie movie, and the Blu-Ray contributes it superbly. It’s the only way to go if you’re in the market to buy it. A must. — Paul Heath
The Film: A-
The Blu-Ray: B+
