Everyone comes of age!
And everyone with access to a camera and a way to finance distribution makes a movie about it.
Richard Ayoade, a young Englishman, tells the story in “Submarine,” his debut as a director, and he does it so well that all its familiar twists and turns were welcome to follow. J. D. Salinger is often credited with inventing the form in Catcher in the Rye,” but Freddie Bartholomew in “Captains Courageous,” and Elizabeth Taylor in “National Velvet” were on similar paths.
This time we have 15-year-old Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts), who lives in Swansea, Wales. His ambition is like that of most 15-year-old boys. He wants to lose his virginity. He also wants to break up what he thinks is a love affair between his Mom and a former boy friend who has become a traveling miracle man. He’s confused, and he jumps to conclusions, and he thinks he’s God’s gift to teenage girls, just like almost all 15-year-old boys.
The teenage girl of Oliver’s desire is the funny, charming Jordana (Yasmin Paige), who always is at least four steps ahead of him.
The parental sub-plot among Oliver’s parents is what gives “Submarine” its style, and Ayoade, who wrote the screenplay based on Joe Dunthorne’s novel, shows real talent.
Noah Taylor and Sally Hawkins are the parents; he’s a marine biologist with a streak of depression. Paddy Considine is terrific is Graham Purvis, a new-age guru who travels in a fancy van, just right for a seduction, and he has his eye on reuniting with her.
Yes, it’s another coming-of-age tale, but Ayoade’s direction, and the acting of Roberts and Paige, give it a lot of style anjd good humor.
Submarine opens today at the Tivoli
—Joe