Stalker

How many video games lead one to watching art house movies? Well, Stalker - Shadow of Chernobyl does. I could gush about it, but that is what British journalist Jim Rossignol was born for. I'm limiting myself to the Russian movie that inspired parts of the game. I tried to watch it some years ago, but was incredibly bored. Today, after years of desensitization by every damn kind of movie, it seems hypnotic, interesting, a little slow and incredibly annoying to me.
Hypnotic and interesting is the film's sense for the uncanniness of industrial ruin(s), its mood of decay, sadness and a kind of awe.
What annoys me is its tendency to treat its characters as symbols instead of people and (getting stronger and more annoying as the film progresses) the by now classically Christian whining about "intellectuals" who "think they understand everything", "have no belief" and so on and eulogistic talk about the intrinsic worthiness of sorrow and unhappiness.
As someone who has been quite unhappy for not insignificant parts of his life my reaction to this is: Fuck you.