Craig Roberts is best known as the star of Richard Ayoade’s quirky, deadpan Welsh teen comedy Submarine, so it’s somewhat suspicious that his directorial debut is, er, a quirky, deadpan Welsh teen comedy.
Roberts’ Jim is another low-achieving nerd, stranded in a small town with oblivious parents, lusting after an unattainable schoolmate. But then Dean (Emile Hirsch), an American dude straight out of the movies, moves in next door and sets about coaxing Jim into coolness – with mildly fraught results.
Is Dean a figment of Jim’s imagination? Apparently not (he takes a shine to Jim’s mum), but he never quite develops into a real person either. Then again, nor do any of the other characters. There’s classy camerawork to recommend, but the story peters out. It’s sub-Submarine.
