SUBMARINE
Dir: Richard Ayoade. Starring: Craig Roberts, Noah Taylor, Sally Hawkins.

The similarity of Craig Roberts to Bud Cort on the DVD cover, coupled with an opening wherein his introverted 15-year-old Welsh schoolboy Oliver imagines his own death – a very funny, almost Princess Di scale outpouring of grief and tributes – brings to mind Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude (1973) and indeed both films are ultimately sweetly subversive coming of age tales. But equally close in spirit is Adrian Mole.
Running on Oliver's hilariously self-involved voice-over, Submarine charts both his attempt to woo pyromaniac classmate Jordana and his misguided approach to adding sparks to his parents' lacklustre marriage.
Taylor and Hawkins are both delightfully deadpan as Oliver's parents; Taylor using his native accent because the director thought there was something funny about a depressed Australian in Wales. He's right. Complications arrive in the form of Paddy Considine, sporting the year's worst mullet as the exotic new neighbour, a leather clad new-age mystic who, to Oliver's alarm, used to date his mother.
As well as looking good and displaying considerable smarts, Submarine is a film with real heart; never letting itself get so quirky that you lose the characters' humanity. Add on a soundtrack of acoustic songs by Arctic Monkey's Alex Turner and you have a true gem.

I must confess to being a big fan of John Carpenter's 1982 version (itself a remake of ‘50s classic The Thing From Another Planet). Not only was it a brilliant exploration of suspicion and fear but it also showcased Rob Bottin's groundbreaking creature effects work. So I was kinda fearing the worst from the new remake of The Thing. It's actually a prequel, taking place on the Norwegian Antarctic base (referenced at the start of Carpenter's film) that first discovers a buried UFO and then its deadly shape-shifting occupant. And it's okay. There are a few scares (but no surprises) and the creature is suitably disgusting, but the extended finale drags and there is little wit or intelligence.

Just as City of God and Elite Squad opened up the violent world of Rio's favellas, so Viva Riva plunges us into Kinshasa in the Congo, showing the same eye for local detail and colour, picking up when the titular Riva returns home after 10 years. He has a stack of money from selling stolen petrol and quickly starts the dangerous pursuit of a gangster's moll, unaware that his ruthless ex-boss from Angola is on his trail, bent on extracting bloody revenge. Strong stuff, with Kinshasa vividly evoked as a seething web of dysfunctional decay. In French with English subtitles.

Win Win is a rather wonderful slice-of-life comedy, starring Paul Giamatti, who plays the same sort of likeable loser that he portrayed in Sideways. He plays a stressed-out wrestling coach who resorts to mild deception to try and help himself and those around him when a hot young contender comes into his life (and the team). Giamatti is – as ever – effortlessly good, and the kind-hearted screenplay and sympathetic cast make for the most enjoyable of rides. Highly recommended, obviously.