Get Your Reps In: Dive Into Coming of Age Jitters With “Submarine”

Submarine (2010)

“I find that the only way to get through life is to picture myself in an entirely disconnected reality,” narrates Oliver Tate, the 15-year-old protagonist of Submarine. He’s talking about his own alienation from the Welsh village of Swansea circa 1986, from his introverted parents (Noah Taylor and Sally Hawkins) and their faltering marriage, from the awkwardness of maintaining his first romantic relationship.

But Oliver is also summing up the animating force behind so much cinephilia—escapism as a means of vicarious knowing. It’s no accident that Oliver (Craig Roberts) visualizes the climactic scenes of his young life from movies that don’t exist—stylized by director Richard Ayoade as the French New Wave with a wild case of the teenage jitters. The formative moments of Oliver’s coming of age fly past in a nearly 90-minute montage of memories, hypotheticals, and swooping handheld cinematography.

Screening Sept. 5–7 at 5th Avenue Cinema, Submarine is an incredibly assured debut from the English master of deadpan comedy, who really ought to make movies. (Ayoade’s only other directorial effort is 2013’s The Double, starring Jesse Eisenberg.)

Also Playing:

Academy: Jaws (1975), Mo’ Better Blues (1990) and Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Sept. 3 and 4. Videodrome (1983), Sept. 5–11. The Breakfast Club (1985), Sept. 5–11. The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013), Sept. 5–11. Cinema 21: Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Sept. 6. Know Your Place (2022), Sept. 7. Cinemagic: Maniac Cop 2 (1990), Sept. 5. Ghostbusters (1984), Sept. 5–11. Dr. Strangelove (1964), Sept. 6, 9 and 10. Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Sept. 6, 7 and 9. Casablanca (1942), Sept. 7 and 8. Clinton: Church of Film presents Terayama: Emperor of the Underground, Sept. 3. The Great Dictator (1940), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Sept. 6. West Side Story (1961), Sept. 7. Hollywood: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, director’s cut (1977), Sept. 3. The Dark Knight (2008), Sept. 4. American Psycho (2000), Sept. 5. Flow (2024), Josie and the Pussycats (2001) and The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man (2024), Sept. 6. Hook (1991) and Chicago (2002), Sept. 7. The Lost Boys (1987), Sept. 8. Five Element Ninjas (1982), Sept. 9. Tomorrow: The Farewell (2019), Sept. 4. Babygirl (2024), Sept. 5. Past Lives (2023), Sept. 6. Janet Planet (2024) and I Saw the TV Glow (2024), Sept. 7.