The twee Tumblr-grunge aesthetic of the 2010s is not something I look back on with nostalgia, but Submarine situates itself in this aesthetic without becoming subsumed by it. As its title suggests, the story is satisfyingly contained.

| Jul 26, 2023

The beauty of Submarine is all in the details, particularly the script's wry observations, which can be excruciating.

| Aug 30, 2018

The movie's conception of the tender agonies and embarrassments of would-be teenage lovers is hobbled by punchline cuts and predictable musical montages (carefree dashes, setting off bottle rockets, etc.).

| Jul 1, 2013

A cool, well-directed, if somewhat sterile and self-consciously quirky affair about teen awkwardness, virginity, infidelity and dead-end marriages.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 18, 2011

All of this makes it sound as if Ayoade is trying much too hard but the gentleness of his touch succeeds in keeping pretentiousness safely out of the picture.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 9, 2011

There have been any number of movies about the problems faced by teenagers when they fall in and out of love, but the team behind Submarine seem to have got it all just right.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 7, 2011

The result is a small, delicate comedy that depends on a continuity of tone that it pulls off. Oliver may not live happily ever after; but he manages to live happily enough here, and that's just fine.

| Original Score: B | Jun 24, 2011

An exercise in briny Welsh Weltzschmerz that tracks the inner and outer worlds of a confused teenage boy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 24, 2011

Oliver's oddball earnestness and desperation [come] across as wan affectations.

| Original Score: C | Jun 24, 2011

Submarine pulls off the difficult trick of being bittersweet without being saccharine and does so with a quietly riotous aplomb.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 17, 2011

In its own right, "Submarine" is one of the best movies of the year.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 17, 2011

"Submarine'' has its own specific miseries and darkly funny vibe. It makes quirkiness briefly seem like a good thing again.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 16, 2011

For an unreliable narrator, Oliver's story is reliably entertaining.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 16, 2011

Ayoade owes a debt to Wes Anderson, but the parents here are so beautifully written, and Hawkins and Taylor particularize them so well, that the movie manages to hold its own.

| Jun 10, 2011

Whatever flaws the film may have, it's certainly unlike anything else in theaters right now.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 10, 2011

These things could have easily resulted in a mass outbreak of broad comedy, but the actors play their roles completely straight. In Submarine, you truly ache through the awkward moments -- even as you're laughing out loud.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 10, 2011

There are no really profound insights in "Submarine" except this: That you'll never really know another person unless you're willing to take the plunge.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 10, 2011

Ayoade is better at establishing a road map of what "Submarine" is supposed to be rather than pulling all its elements together cohesively.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 9, 2011

I suggest you take a chance on "Submarine" and find out if its particular comic angst rings any bells, be you male or be you female, Welsh or American, 16 or 61.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 9, 2011

It's a self-confident work for the first-time director, Richard Ayoade, whose purpose I think is to capture that delicate moment in some adolescent lives when idealism and trust lead to tentative experiments.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 9, 2011