SUBMARINE (15) Comedy/Drama/Romance. Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine, Gemma Chan. Director: Richard Ayoade.

Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd, The Mighty Boosh) makes an impressive directorial debut with this hysterical coming-of-age story set in windswept Swansea.

Based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne and laced with mordant wit, Submarine charts the messy sexual awakening of a 15-year-old misfit just as his parents’ marriage comes apart at the seams.

The script spits in the eye of convention and gleefully sidesteps cliches.

Schoolboy Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is our unreliable narrator – a dreamer determined to lose his virginity to spirited classmate Jordana (Yasmin Paige).

Needless to say, the lad is delighted when his pestering leads eventually to a nervous kiss.

“Her mouth tasted of milk, Polo mints and Dunhill International,” he enthuses.

Meanwhile, his parents Lloyd (Noah Taylor) and Jill (Sally Hawkins) feel the strain when her first love, new age guru Graham (Paddy Considine), returns unexpectedly with a feisty partner Kim-Lin (Gemma Chan) in tow.

Submarine peeks beneath the duffel coat of its fantasist protagonist and reveals the growing pains that propel Oliver to the cusp of adulthood.

Ayoade strikes the perfect balance between laughter and poignant reflection, without ever having to slather on the sentimentality.