One of the most buzzed-about films at Toronto this year was “Submarine,” the coming-of-age comedy from British comedy-star-turned-music-video-director Richard Ayoade. Our men on the ground were put off in advance by the Wes Anderson comparisons, (we can all agree that we’re about done with post-Anderson indie filmmakers), but the word, both from Toronto and friends in the UK who’ve seen it, is that it’s its own beast, and one of the fresher and funnier comedies around at the moment.
TwitchFilm have put up a handful of clips from the film (which you can watch after the jump), and they seem to bear this out: while there are certainly some “Rushmore”-esque touches (symmetrical framing, the font of the titles), there’s much more going on: Ayoade’s clearly got a very strong visual eye. The clips are pretty hilarious as well, but with an undercurrent of feeling that promises a lot from the film. Ben Stiller executive-produced through his Red Hour Films label, and Sally Hawkins, Noah Taylor and Paddy Considine topline a cast led by newcomers Craig Roberts and Yasmin Paige.
The Weinstein Company picked the film up recently, and are likely to put it out in the first half of next year. We’ll hopefully be catching it at the London Film Festival this year, so we’ll see then if it lives up to the hype.