“The stunning first effort from new director Richard Ayoade.”

It isn’t very often that you are shown a film that hits all the keys with precision, leading up to one glorious and resounding chord that echoes throughout the theater, enchanting everyone who hears it and demanding their utmost wonder and respect. Submarine is the stunning first effort from new director Richard Ayoade and a better beginning could not be had.

A young Welsh boy named Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) falls in love for the first time with Jordana Bevan (Yasmin Paige) amidst a series of other problems that must be dealt with, including his struggles at school, his parent’s unhappy marriage, and the strange new neighbor who may or may not be a ninja. Oliver has good intentions but is completely self-involved, desperately attempting to control every event occurring around him.

Based on the novel Submarine, the film is lyrical, intelligen, and sublimely literary. Oliver is the United Kingdom’s answer to Michael Cera, a grim and sallow-faced boy who may in fact be an embodiment of an Edward Gorey drawing. Jordana Bevan is a tough girl who despises romantic gestures and finds Oliver endlessly amusing in his fumbling attempts to woo her. Her mysterious glances and hidden smiles only add to the suspicion that lingers in the young man’s mind that women cannot be understood, only appreciated.

Colorful and vivid, the film is reminiscent of Wes Anderson at times and Terrence Malick at others. Submarine is truly beautiful, almost timeless, but surely set at some point during the ’70s or ’80s. The pacing is quick, with plenty of small scenes and tiny flashbacks, old grainy super eight footage and the muddled hues of a Polaroid picture. The warm and inviting music that ties the film together effortlessly is the handiwork of a member of the Arctic Monkeys, Alex Turner, and there are elements of Nick Drake present as the songs herald the lazy sounds of summer and young love. The score itself seems to be taken straight out of the Godard playbook for Contempt — perhaps intentionally — with dire explosive sounds that particularly break up the film into multiple segments.

Submarine is incredibly funny, shyly self-aware, intellectually tidy, and expertly put together. This is the epitome of what an indie rom-com should be, actually funny and sweetly romantic, with heart, mind, and soul working together in unison. Films that are as stylistically particular as Submarine often veer wildly into Napoleon Dynamite territory, but we are firmly based in reality, just a subset thereof. The matters that Oliver concerns himself with are often weighty and difficult for adults to deal with, much less a teenager, but the film’s affection and compassion for its characters, even as they struggle, allow us to love and relate to them rather than pity and mock.

Ayoade is best known as an actor for his work in the British comedy The IT Crowd, and his penchant for a clever turn of phrase or hilariously staged moment is clear. If Submarine is any indication of his abilities as a director, then he joins the ranks of those multi-talented individuals that we envy for their endless creativity.

Grade: A

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