Chwedl plentyndod a choll

[muckefuck]

As an example of the kind of movies I was reference in the last post, the other day I watched Submarine. At first it seemed an odd choice for the directoral debut of Ayoade (best known to American viewers as Moss in The IT Crowd), but as it advanced, I could see how well his sensibility suited the material. Yeah, it's another awkward teen romance centred on a cerebral and sensitive man-child, but his love object isn't a manic pixie and, as Ebert perspicaciously notes, the experiences aren't "filtered through the sensibility of more weathered minds" as so often the case.

It brought to mind Moonrise Kingdom on the one hand and Flirting on the other--which made me even more squeeful to discover that star of the latter Noah Taylor plays the protagonist's übergeeky marine biologist father. The scene where he tries to give his son romantic advice is so excruciatingly but hilariously awkward that I insisted monshu watch it again with me. Sally Hawkins is his match as the quietly neurotic mother; with parents like those, it's impossible for their son not to be the kind of baroque piece of work who conducts "routine inspections of [his] parents' bedroom".

Of course, what tipped me off to Taylor's Australian origins is that he never does quite have the accent down. Many of the actors don't, but that seems to be par for the course with feature films filmed in Wales. Michael Sheen was apparently tapped for a role--whether as the father or not I don't know--but had to drop out. Gavin and Stacey's Steffan Rhodri and Melanie Walters both have smaller roles, and Wales' answer to Brian Blessed, Sion Tudor Owen, has a noteworthy cameo. But aside from adolescent star Craig Roberts, all the other principals are English and sound it.

Comments

[oh-meow.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed Richard Ayoade's version of the Double recently.

Have you seen Darkplace?