Film

Submarine

Name: Submarine
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Released: 2011
Cast: Noah Taylor, Paddy Considine, Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Sally Hawkins

Other titles called Submarine: the 1928 film.

Coming-of-age

Richard Ayoade's debut is a deadpan coming-of-age comedy that takes the interior life of a teenage boy seriously. Oliver Tate narrates his own small tragedies—romantic failure, parental discord, social invisibility—with the pomposity of a Victorian novelist. It's funny and tender and painfully honest about what it feels like to be fifteen and convinced the world revolves around your private misery.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like your coming-of-age comedy deadpan, self-consciously stylised, and happy to let a sad moment sit right next to a silly one without apologising.

Skip it if its fussy, self-aware whimsy can feel like a director showing off, and if you want the emotions to arrive unfiltered, the arch framing may keep you at arm's length.

What it asks of you: Ninety-eight minutes, but it lingers on awkward silences and deadpan stares, so patience pays off more than speed; expect to be amused and unsettled within the same scene.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Perks of Being a Wallflower2012

A similarly introspective teen narrator learning that his darkness is not unique. Shares Submarine's gift for making adolescent pain feel both genuine and slightly ridiculous, with real warmth underneath.

But Aims for emotional catharsis where Submarine stays deliberately remote. If you want your teen angst validated rather than gently mocked, this goes softer.

Rushmore1998

Wes Anderson's original awkward genius trying to will himself into maturity. The same deadpan humour about a boy too clever for his own good, the same affection for failures trying hard.

But More whimsical and less grounded than Submarine. Anderson's stylisation sits on top of the story rather than emerging from it.

The 400 Blows1959

Truffaut's heartbreaking portrait of a boy sliding into trouble. Less funny than Submarine but the DNA is identical: a camera that doesn't look away from childhood as a real emotional state.

But It's in French, in black-and-white, and fundamentally sadder. No narration, no jokes to soften the blow.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Submarine

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse2018

Both films are comedies about adolescence that trust the audience to laugh and hurt at the same moment. The engine is the same: a boy learning that trying hard is not the same as succeeding, and that vulnerability is not weakness.

A teenage boy learning to be himself while the world demands he be someone else. Miles Morales shares Oliver's self-doubt and his refusal to fit. The animation is different but the emotional rhythm—awkward, funny, genuinely moving—is Submarine's exact cousin.

But A superhero film with quantum mechanics, multiverses, and action sequences. If you love Submarine for its specificity and quiet, the scope and spectacle might overwhelm what you're looking for.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse poster

Hunt for the Wilderpeople2016

A misfit kid and an unlikely adult learning each other's shape, told with Submarine's balance of comedy and real feeling. New Zealand wilderness, but the emotional weather is familiar.

But Wider in scope and more action-adventure than Submarine. If you loved the claustrophobic Swansea quality, this opens up.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl2015

Another young narrator wrestling with self-awareness, cinema-love, and the reality of death. The same painful honesty about teenage solipsism colliding with actual stakes.

But Heavier subject matter. The film earns its seriousness, but it's genuinely sad in ways Submarine never quite is.

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a boy becoming a man, told through mood and colour rather than plot. The same refusal to sentimentalise adolescence, but shot through with real tenderness.

But Glacial pacing and minimal dialogue. If you want wit and narration, you won't find them here—just observation.

The Fault in Our Stars2014

Teen protagonists with interior lives, serious illness as metaphor, the attempt to impose narrative on chaos. Intelligent young people trying to understand themselves and each other.

But Significantly less funny and more overtly sentimental. Submarine's dryness is replaced by genuine romanticism.

Juno2007

A teenage narrator at odds with the world, trying to be cooler than she feels. Indie sensibility, real consequences, genuine laugh-out-loud moments amid the awkwardness.

But Pregnant teenager melodrama was unavoidable for years after this. If you're tired of it, hard to separate the film from its cultural weight.

20th Century Women2016

A teenage boy adrift in 1979, surrounded by women trying to guide him. Digressive, funny, interested in how small moments shape a life. Ayoade-adjacent in sensibility.

But Slower and more scattered than Submarine. The pleasures are episodic rather than driven, which some readers will find meandering.

A Ghost Story2017

Both films are fascinated by the gap between how you experience your own pain and how invisible that pain is to others. Oliver narrates his tragedy; the ghost watches invisibly. Both ask: what does it mean to feel important in a world that will not notice?

A man as a ghost watching his house, his widow, the movement of time. It sounds pretentious and it is, but beneath that: a meditation on how small private griefs never quite resolve. Submarine's melancholy without the comedy, its structure around absence and looking.

But Glacially slow, visually minimal, genuinely bleak. It ends without resolution. If Submarine's darkness made you uncomfortable, this will not comfort you.