...but maybe we don't do hits. (on neocities.org)

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Submarine (2010)

dir. Richard Ayoade

here's what hal had to say:

"i have a lot to say in reflection on this movie, as it perfectly encapsulates the experience of being a young person desperate to make something interesting happen in your life. the soundtrack to this film (in particular, stuck on the puzzle) was the score of my teenage years; i was someone who pined, exceptionally often and to disastrous ends, for a life where myself and the people around me behaved as people did in movies. you want all the drama and action without the repercussions, want people to understand your motivations as transparently as they do when it comes to fictional characters, want someone to see you and be a part of what you want for yourself. there's a kind of loneliness unique to being a teenager, but compounded with being a sensitive, lonely, highly creative teenager, and you've got yourself an unshakable sense that nobody could possibly understand you--that you have to make people understand, or change their lives if it means you can show them your vision.

of course, so much of that DOES shake loose as you get older--things at 14 matter much less once you're 38, after all--but there is a unique dismissiveness toward the feelings of young people, wrapped up in the well-meaning idea that these things might not be quite as vivid in a few years' time (this idea is not cogent for young people, who instead assume you believe their feelings don't matter in the first place). the things you feel at 14 are things which, in some small way, will remain a part of you. this film was a beautiful meditation on all of those ideas."