Submarine [2010]

Wes-Andersen-esque slice of life coming of age story of a pale-skinned boy from Wales, who wears the same navy blue peacoat the whole goddamn movie.

Before:
Got the impression that it was a quirky coming of age story. There were some funny lines, and the immediate impression was hit-or-miss — largely based on whether or not the wes-anderson-y cinematography/story telling would work.

After:
The quirkiness worked for the film. Off the top of my head, a necessary quality of a coming of age film would be an ability to draw empathy from its audience, and simply put it succeeded. The film had at its foundation the awkward experiences of a young teenager, with a particular focus on love, and built a fairly simple plot around that foundation, all the while drawing parallels with a side plot of Oliver Tate’s (our protagonist) parents facing a lull in their marriage.

I could not stop myself from making comparisons of the film’s cinematography to that of Wes Anderson’s signature style (i.e. Grand Budapest Hotel) and so though the two were definitely different none if was particuarly memorable with two exceptions: the frequent abrupt cuts from one face to another to emphasize the curt words spit back and forth in a conversation — which really worked for the film; and a specific close-up shot of Oliver sitting at a piano where the camera zooms out and out, as if to emulate how small he felt after breaking up with Jordana (or perhaps as a subtle testament to how despite Oliver’s belief that his losing Jordana would scar him for the rest of his life, this experience was but a small fraction of a bigger picture).

What I liked most about this film were the genuinely funny dialogue (scripted one-liners can be fun too) and comedic situations; the great casting choice for our protagonist, Oliver Tate, and his parents (not so much for Jordana); and the story-telling narrative form of the film — it was all narrated by Oliver, and there were dream-like cut scenes.