As much as I admire the craft and ambition, I've yet to see a Tarkovsky film I can fully embrace. In my opinion, they are all marred by his lack of faith in pure image; the need for verbal clarification and rhetorical explanation of things take away the mystery of his aesthetics.

I had the opportunity to watch Stalker in a theater once and all I kept thinking by the end was how much I wanted the characters to shut up so I could actually enjoy the mise en scene...

Why speak English when there's Gunganese

The final act doesn't feel quite earned and the message is too simple and narratively predetermined to be treated seriously (Bong said he tried to break conventional class stereotypes but it's hard to tell from the movie...). Thoroughly hilarious nonetheless, thanks to the brilliant female ensemble who are undeservedly given less of a role than their male counterparts.

cute