SUPERCUT: “Underwater Sorrow” proves that in indie movies, pools are for sadness

This is a supercut that I’ve publicly wished someone would make on a few occasions, featuring film characters who go underwater when they’re sad. The water hides your tears! “Underwater Sorrow,” aka the Emo Submarine, is a close cousin to the Cathartic Shower Scene, and also to the Moment of Reflection While Staring at a Body of Water Scene. Underwater Sorrow is mostly an indie film phenomenon, that I think I may have noticed first in the trailer for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Jack Goes Boating. “Acoustic music plays and someone goes underwater for some reason” is one of the most pervasive indie movie tropes. I think it happens so often because it taps directly into the mindset of the indie filmmaker: being rich enough to have a pool, yet still being sad.

Oddly, this supercut seems to focus more on the phenomenon in big budget blockbusters – Man of Steel, Lord of the Rings – where I barely noticed it. Thus there’s a couple that I know they missed. Just off the top of my head I can think of Jack Goes Boating and Take This Waltz, but there have to be more. Also, Upstream Color, I think? What else are they missing? You don’t actually have to sit through the movie, I’m just curious.

I had an above-ground pool growing up. That seemed way less cinematic. Though I think I cried a few times when I was underwater patching the holes.

[via BooyaPictures]

×