'Submarine' is a modern comedy drama, that follows the life of Welsh boy Oliver Tate and his journey to achieve goals such as losing his virginity before his next birthday, and keeping his mother away from an old romance who has unexpectedly moved in next door. The film documents Oliver's first real love, and how the awkward and unpredictable relationship unfolds with school-girl Jordana and also the other relationships in his life, such as the uncomfortable but friendly one he shares with his dad, and the "I'm going to pretend I'm crazy so you'll leave me alone" one he has with his mother. 'Submarine' is presented in a documentary style, with Oliver mainly commentating over the footage shown, and a little bit of Jordana's narrative as well.
'Submarine' was directed by Richard Ayoade (The IT crowd) and produced by Warp Films and Film4. The cast include Craig Roberts (The story of Tracy Beaker) who plays Oliver Tate ,Yasmin Paige (Ballet Shoes) who plays Jordana, Noah Taylor (Almost Famous) who plays the father and Sally Hawkins (Never let me go) who plays the mother.
The film is loosely based on the novel 'Submarine' by Joe Dunthorne, and after the rights to the book were aquired by Film4, Ayoade was brought onboard for his debut behind the camera. After extensive planning, the audition process began and within a few days, over 100 people had posted online auditions at thecastingscene.com for the three junior lead roles. After a short process, the final cuts were made, and the cast list was decided.
I really like the way that throughout the film, the different story lines were kept seperate, for example when the screen fades to red and the title Jordana comes up, the audience immediately know that this part of the film is going to be about her. I think Ayoade decided to create this effect to make the film seem even more childish, as though Oliver Tate was directing it himself. I also enjoyed parts of the love montage between Oliver and Jordana, because of the 'dreamland' kind of focus the camera had on them.
The soundtrack was very effect throughout 'Submarine', firstly because of the music created by Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner. He wrote the songs to fit with the film and I think that this added to the personality of both main character Oliver and the film as a whole. I also enjoyed the narrative, spoken by Oliver and Jordana, because I think that by letting the audience in on their inner thoughts and secrets, it encouraged the viewers to become connected to the characters and sympathise with them.
I think that the film works for what it is because of the target audience that it is aimed at, Teenagers. In a way, the film highlights some part of every teenagers life, whether it is Sex, Parents, School, or Friends, most of the intended audience for this film will be able to connect to some part of Olivers life and in turn, laugh when something goes wrong because they have probably experienced the same event in some way or another. This automatically helps the audience to put their own thoughts into the storyline, and therefore making it seem much more personal to each separate viewer.
This film makes me feel like laughing, because being a teenager myself, I can look at some of the things that Oliver does, and think about being in that situation and how I would react."You have a character who sees the world differently to everyone else...the idea of the film is that Oliver is kind of directing it."- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyInN7uHR7U&feature=related. I think that this shows that Ayoade fully had oliver in mind when filming, and wanted to bring across that familiar childish way of thinking.
I think overall that this film was a great success because of the team that worked on it, new director, fresh faced actors and a brand new soundtrack from a well known artist really helped to make the overall project a great coming-of-age comedy that makes people of all ages feel able to relax and laugh along with the storyline.
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