Undressing Richard Ayoade's Submarine

On March 18, 2011, when Richard Ayoade was thirty-three years old, Optimum opened the writer/director's first theatrical movie, Submarine, in sixty UK theaters. Ayoade had already established himself as a comedic actor, writer, and director in the UK television industry, starting with Garth Marenghi's Darkplace in early 2004.

From Wikipedia:

Following on from Garth Marenghi's Netherhead, which won the 2001 Perrier Awards, the show revolves around fictional horror author Garth Marenghi (played by Holness) and his publisher Dean Learner (played by Ayoade).

Darkplace is presented as a lost classic: a television series produced in the 1980s, though never broadcast at the time. The presentation features commentary from many of the "original" cast, where characters such as "Marenghi" and "Learner" reflect on making the show. Darkplace parodies numerous aspects of '80s low-budget television, including fashion, special effects, production gaffs, and music, as well as the widespread practice of including commentary tracks on DVD releases of old films and television shows.

Ayoade had a supporting role in six episodes of Nathan Barley (a show directed and co-written by Four Lions filmmaker Christopher Morris), co-created another television show, Man to Man with Dean Learner (playing titular Dean Leaner, host of a fictitious chat show), and co-starred in the Graham Linehan written The IT Crowd, a well-known and well-received show that lasted four seasons. Beginning with The Mighty Boosh pilot episode in 2003, Ayoade appeared on the show five times through its 2007 season, co-wrote episode 3.6, and had a supporting role in frequent Mighty Boosh director Paul King's first theatrical movie, Bunny and the Bull.

His television credits demonstrated his talent for comedy, and his music videos showcased his keen eye for dramatic composition and visual range:

Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma

Super Furry Animals - Run Away

Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Kasabian - Vlad the Impaler

Kasabian - Vlad the Impaler

Ayoade has stated that Louis Malle's Zazie dans le métro is the movie he's seen the most ("probably forty times") and acknowledges Taxi Driver and Badlands as influences on Submarine, for having "a character who sees the world very differently to everyone else."

The Submarine screenplay is an adaptation of a Joe Dunthorne novel. Gifted young actors Craig Roberts (Oliver Tate) and Yasmin Paige (Jordana Bevan) play the protagonists. The adult cast is slam-dunk great: Noah Taylor as Oliver's father, Sally Hawkins as his mother, and Paddy Considine as his father's sexual rival, Graham Purvis. ("It seems pretty clear that mum is having an affair. Why else would she be at the hairdresser's with Graham the ninja?") The crew is mostly composed of proven UK industry professionals, at approximately the same point in their careers as Ayoade, and it'll be exciting to follow them as their careers no-doubt continue.

"Most people think of themselves as individuals, that there's no one on the planet like them. This thought motivates them to get out of bed, eat food, and walk around like nothing's wrong. My name is Oliver Tate."

Film begins: pan around his bedroom concludes with snap zoom onto Oliver, who looks into the camera

It's easy to become fascinated by the tastes of Ayoade when considering Submarine. His taste in: production design, graphic design, romantic beach scenery, camera movements and compositions, edits, character attitudes and behaviors, etc. The film is full of wonderful particulars that enrich the narrative experience - and because the particulars are enriching, and because they fit with each other and lock the film into a perspective, their values seem interconnected as well, and everything in the movie feels like it has a purpose and a value. Everything feels selected, considered, cherished.

For example, I enjoy the way Ayoade uses different visual textures for different purposes. At one point he refers to the "Super 8 of memory."

The main movie is 1.85:1 and 35mm, but Ayoade switches this on occasion.

Fantasy sequence mimics tv newscamera

When Ayoade changes visual textures he adopts the logic of the perspective, which enhances the effect of the texture. During this tv newscamera fantasy sequence the camera behaves like a tv newscamera, distinguishing it from the behavior of the moviecamera. A new texture is chosen if a desired shot would violate a texture's logic. For example, this news-anchor scene with tv newscamera perspective is cut into by a moviecamera perspective for a dolly shot:

It's during this death fantasy sequence that love interest Jordana is introduced. She's the girl he daydreams about:

Ayoade cinematically expands the emotional or personal value of an experience through the structure of a scene:

Jordana and Oliver pass in the hall

Ayoade actively uses cinema grammar, in a breathing, stimulating way that amplifies the subjective experience of the protagonist. He focuses the movie's emotions through cinema - and why not, it's a movie. One advantage to this technique is that while otherwise I might drift from Oliver and his perspective and emotions, the use of cinema tethers me to him, and always I feel like I'm experiencing what Oliver is feeling. I become Oliver, as much as I can, through cinema.

The camera moves a lot. There's frequent use of OTS tracking shots, hand-held camera, whip-pans, dollies, and zooms. This gives the film - which is about teenage emotions - liveliness and kinetic energy.

Ayoade forms mini-montages for transitional moments, cuts on actions to give mundane tasks narrative gravitas and cinematic meaning:

The movie's aesthetics communicate themes of romance and passion:

Running with fireworks

Conversely, Ayoade's gifts of deliberate cinema can weigh the movie down. Life, simply, is not this focused.

How much does Ayoade keep from us, and what isn't revealed about Oliver? Between the cinematic clarity and copious v.o., the second time I watched the movie I felt slightly less captivated during story elements, which could feel merely transitional. I discovered jokes I missed the first time, but there was little new to discover about the characters. The harmony of the narrative components felt sometimes suffocating. Everything felt decided for me.

The CUT TO: punch-line jokes, e.g. the school fight and the classroom reading of the letter, are obvious examples of Ayoade's preference for slicing into life to get to what he wants.

Simply, in matters of taste, some opinions I share with Ayoade, and some I don't. That's the risk a moviemaker takes when imprinting a personality. And, bottom line, I'd rather a moviemaker take risks than not take risks.

Sometimes I feel moments exist needlessly in a movie-reality (how much does Ayoade love lights?):

Sometimes I feel what I'm seeing perfectly reflects reality or a sense of realness:

Sometimes I can't tell/don't care why/what is working (because I am feeling):

But sometimes, and these are my favorite times, and Ayoade is good at them, the moment exists in a movie-reality, but ALSO reflects a sense of realness, AND I can't tell/don't care why/what is working (because I am feeling):

When it comes to emotions, Ayoade has a great mixture of earnestness and amusement. I think Submarine is best when it deals with emotions. Ayoade's time as a music video director helped him find ways to condense emotions into visual stamps, to convert emotions into images:

Fantasy is used to express emotional states:

And dreams too:

I think the ending of Submarine is pitch-perfect and well-earned, and maybe the ending wouldn't have the same impact if Ayoade hadn't guided me along the way. It's a challenging and thin line between giving too much and not giving enough, but if in the end it pays off, and I care about the characters and have feelings and want to go outside and pick a flower and give it to a girl, than who cares about the line, the line isn't very important, not that important, not as important as sharing a feeling with the audience. I wouldn't say the movie discovers new territory, but I do think it nicely updates and pushes along techniques and themes that needn't die.