Walter, Grace & the Submarine

Walter, Grace & the Submarine will have its Grand Rapids premiere at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Wealthy Theatre, 1130 Wealthy St. SE, in Grand Rapids, Mich., as part of the 2024 Grand Rapids Film Festival. Tickets for the screening can be purchased here, and you can also learn more about the Grand Rapids Film Festival.

Mumblecore is usually a word I reserve as a slur. In the case of Walter, Grace & The Submarine, the first indie film from director Noah Bashore, it is a word I use affectionately.

Deploying uncommon sincerity and restraint, Bashore’s film challenges the often intolerable pretentiousness and thematic weightlessness so common to mumblecore — a minimalist North American indie filmmaking style that arose in the early aughts with discursive plots usually featuring young lovers. With a minimal cast, characters that take each other more seriously than themselves, and a script that makes better use of the awkwardness inherent to mumblecore instead of losing itself in that awkwardness, the smitten-laced film flips the usual vices of the niche style and turns them into strengths.

Speaking of the title: A lyric stolen from John Mayer’s song “Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967,” it tells you precisely the kind of vibes the feature debut seeks to deliver. And in doing so, it is a good and winsome film deserving of an eager and generous audience.

Bashore’s film is set in the city he lives in, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and it is very much set in Grand Rapids. The city’s recognizable landmarks — the Blue Bridge, the lime bikes downtown that people only pretend to ride, the weird sculpture thing downtown — make up the scenic backdrop for Walter (Kyle Patrick) and Grace’s (Jessie Carl) two-week romantic escapade before the latter leaves town for Portland, Oregon.

Continue reading at the Midwest Film Journal.