Submarine manages to be genuinely hilarious whilst preserving a sinister tone riddled with existential angst more attributable to Bergman.
It’s easy enough to talk of the promise evident in a directorial debut, but with Submarine Ayoade has reached far beyond that to deliver one of the warmest, bittersweet love movies of recent times.
Tonally, Ayoade treads a fine balance between poignant emotion and detached comedy, and his young leads serve him well in this regard.
Smart and sly, funny and fourth-wall-breaking… but above all, an excruciatingly accurate coming-of-ager. On this evidence, Ayoade could be Britain’s answer to Wes Anderson.
A perfect blend of cool, quirky comedy and warm-hearted drama, crafted with such poise that it should see the transcendence of Ayoade from TV nerd-comic to true big-screen talent.
Submarine is worth keeping on your radar even when its third act goes into choppy waters.
A great date movie for geekier couples.
Funny, smart, inventive.
This may be an everyday tale but it’s told with a lot of ambition. No weighty messages, no lessons to learn, just a heart worn proudly on a duffle-coat sleeve.
As for Ayoade, there's clearly a big future payday for him in Hollywood, if he wants it, but I can't help hoping he develops in depth and scope here, as a tremendous new voice in British film.
Unusually for a British film, Submarine is fresh and non-formulaic. It looks great and Ayoade has come up with a darkly amusing tale packed with delightful details and odd but endearing characters.
I would have traded all of its new wave dottiness and knowing whimsicality for a few spontaneous laughs.
Offbeat British comedy.
Not since The Catcher In The Rye can I recall such an acutely well-observed tragic-comedy about the horrors of being a teenager.
Richard Ayoade's debut feature is a bold and masterful but low-key comedy that breaks the mould of indie film-making by being confident doing its own thing.
It shows great promise but drags in places and just wasn’t funny enough for me.
Submarine is so poised, so studded with good things (Hawkins and Considine are both consistently giggle-inducing), that it may be churlish to pick holes in it. But it’s exactly because Ayoade is such an obvious cinephile, and is so talented, that it’s important to insist that filmmaking this self-consciously stylised and citational will always lack the emotional impact that its director secretly and belatedly craves.
It's a stylish, touching, overly cute film, much influenced by the French New Wave.
This could have been merely cute and self-regarding, but in its easy vivacity, Submarine comes across as the most playful, least neurotic of film-buff films.
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General release. Check local listings for show times.
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