The twee Tumblr-grunge aesthetic of the 2010s (polaroids, dark clothing, cigarettes and typewritten notes) is not something I look back on with nostalgia, but Submarine situates itself in this aesthetic without becoming subsumed by it. Submarine was fresh in 2010 and resists feeling dated in 2023. Science and Technical Research and Development.Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities.Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives.Information and Communications Technology.HR, Training and Organisational Development.Health - Medical and Nursing Management.Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance.Visual cartwheels such as these could seem self-satisfied but, ironically located within Oliver’s imagination, they work. He imagines a music video that captures the giddiness of first love, set to Alex Turner’s “Hiding Tonight”, which the Arctic Monkeys frontman wrote for the film. The cinematography enables these escapist impulses when Oliver imagines his life being presented as a spy thriller, the camera zooms out just as he thinks there would probably only be the budget to film in such a clichéd manner.

In no way does the film try to convince audiences that this coming of age will be familiar to everyone the narrative is filtered through Oliver’s penchant for fantasy, signposted by an opening sequence in which he imagines how the town would react if he died. What Oliver does believe in, though, is the importance of telling us his story, on his own terms. The camera passively observes an expanse of ocean in the same way it does junkyards, a favourite spot of Oliver and his love interest Jordana (portrayed perfectly by Yasmin Paige), who has a slightly concerning bullying streak. “I’m not sure I believe in scenery,” he says early on, a philosophy that Ayoade’s cinematography takes in its stride. Oliver is rarely seen without a dour expression to match his black duffel coat, as he offers intelligent yet dispassionate observations on the stifling nature of teenage life in Swansea. This month it returned to Netflix.Īdapted from the 2008 book by Joe Dunthorne, the film follows the narrator, Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts), a 15-year-old who struggles to maintain the bliss of first love while his parents’ marriage rapidly disintegrates. (Do you remember Timothée Chalamet starring in Hot Summer Nights a mere five years ago? No, me neither.) Submarine, Richard Ayoade’s wry and stylish directorial debut, becomes a teenager in 2023 after its release 13 years ago. They are either hailed as timeless, and subsequently discovered by successive generations ( The Breakfast Club, Mean Girls). Coming-of-age films tread a line of high risk and high reward.

2010s nostalgia aesthetic