Submarine

My blog title, "The Ocean is Six Miles Deep", is a quote from my favorite coming-of-age film, which is also in my top five favorite films of all time list. Submarine. It's a British/Welsh film directed by Richard Ayoade in his directorial debut. In an interview he did on the film, he talked about how there hasn't really been that many British coming-of-age films in the past decade or so, and what films he ended up using as inspiration in lieu of that.

Submarine, which is an adaption of the novel by Joe Dunthorne, can easily come off as indubitably pretentious and flouncy. In reality, or at least, in my opinion, what can make the film seem pretentious is that it takes a lot from classic French films, and relies heavily on imagery and an air of nostalgia. It's also quite expressionistic, so I suppose the fact that it isn't so literal could turn people off. The soundtrack, which is mellow beyond belief, was done by Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys and could get me through hell and high water.

The film is about Oliver Tate, a fifteen-year-old boy who can't find his place, has become infatuated with a girl in his class, and who takes it upon himself to fix his parent's marriage. It's witty, it's visually stunning, it's hilarious, and it's on Netflix.

Here's the trailer:

Scenes from the Film:

And "The Anatomy of a Scene" narrated by Richard Ayoade