The Sundance Film Festival is now underway as industry veterans and cinephiles alike in Park City right now are shuffle from screening to screening looking for the next big thing. One of the films that made a splash there yesterday is the coming of age dark comedy “Submarine” which made its debut last year at the Toronto International Film Festival. At TIFF the film picked up some extremely positive reviews, comparing it to the work of Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach and Alexander Payne and The Weinstein Company quickly snatched the film up for distribution.
If the reviews weren’t enough to get you excited, “Submarine” is also the directorial debut of Richard Ayoade. Best known for starring in the hit Britcom “The I.T. Crowd” the actor/writer/director has a lot of experience behind the camera as well, helming the hilarious cult series “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace” and music videos for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend and Arctic Monkeys (Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys scored “Submarine”). The film was produced by Ben Stiller from an acclaimed novel by Joe Dunthorne and stars newcomers Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige as well as Sally Hawkins, Noah Taylor and Paddy Considine. Since we missed it in Toronto and London this is definitely on our must see list at the fest. To coincide with the films U.S. debut, MTV Movies has just released the first poster for the film. Larger version is below.
Not much we can say about the poster except that we’re glad it didn’t go for the hand drawn, cut and paste look that so many “quirky” films tend to lean on. Though the font does look a bit familiar. Ayoade currently has his plate full with a possible adaptation of the Dostoevsky novella “The Double” and the comic drama “The Apostles Of Infinite Love” but he seems like a skilled multi-itasker. He recently made time to direct an upcoming episode of “Community.”
Here is the full synopsis for “Submarine” from the Sundance Film Festival website.
Meet Oliver Tate, a precocious 15-year-old whose worldview is exceedingly clever and largely delusional (he imagines the outpouring of grief that would spread through Wales if he died). Oliver carries a briefcase, doesn’t agree with everything Nietzsche said but concedes that he had some interesting points, peruses the dictionary for new words (fla•gi•tious, adj, wickedly shameful), and suspects his mother of having an affair with their New Age neighbor. But foremost on Oliver’s mind is finding a girlfriend. Enter Jordana Bevan.
Adapted from Joe Dunthorne’s wry novel and bolstered by aesthetic wit, fabulous performances, and a clever score by Andrew Hewitt (with songs by Alex Turner), Submarine evokes the spontaneity and breezy cinematic cool of the French New Wave. Ayoade sidesteps coming-of-age clichés to explore a kid who’s too self-absorbed to realize that to know somebody, you first have to remove yourself from the center of the universe.
Expect to hear a lot more about the film as it screens all week at Sundance — we assume a trailer will probably emerge during the festival as well. If you don’t manage to catch it at the fest, it will be released in the U.K. on March 18 and in North America this summer. — Cory Everett
