The Underrated Blog-a-Thon: Conclusion

I've vastly enjoyed the fact that the days with multiple submissions have featured write-ups on films that have similar themes. On Wednesday, Shannon and Jeff contributed looks at underrated comedies; today, Joshua at Octopus Cinema and Jeff at Culture Snob provide looks at two underrated dramas with varying levels.

Joshua on The Prefab People:: "The film begins with the husband leaving the wife, storming out of the door amidst her pleas for him to stay and her helpless bellowing about her inability to escape from the children. Structurally, this is a scene out of place, but we get the sense it is not being pre-emptively shown without designs unfamiliar to Western audiences. The scene stops before it is finished and we are given a glimpse into the mostly unhappy lives of the two protagonists, the wife overworked and caged by her two children that demand her attention, and the husband lacking discipline at work yet feeling constantly oppressed under his wife's condescension."

Jeff on In Dreams: "But In Dreams isn’t about the story, and the title itself is a heavy hint that the symbols and visuals are far more important than plot. Pulling from myths and folk tales — the children’s production of “Snow White” is not merely a plot setup —[Neil] Jordan mixes motifs and images drawn (or seemingly drawn) from the oral tradition: the apples, the color red, the submerged city, the cruelly abandoned child, and a woman’s shoe, to cite just a few examples."

Thanks to Joshua and Jeff for their contributions, and I hope that everyone enjoyed reading the responses and essays this week! I don't think a long, dramatic conclusion note is needed; the contributions speak for themselves, and I hope they facilitated some thoughts or discussions. As I've mentioned consistently this week, if you have a late submission coming in, just send me an e-mail or a comment, and I shall update accordingly.