Or WALL-E, an attack on consumerism; not only was this remarkable work soul-achingly bleak for its first, dialogue-free 40 minutes, but it featured, as the critic Jonathan Romney observed, a metal box for a hero and a steering-wheel for a villain.
The Road is short on dialogue and very bleak in subject matter but nonetheless makes absorbing and affecting viewing.
It's astonishingly bleak and cynical fare, the scabrous dialogue genuinely shocking (particularly in its depiction of impotent male rage and misogyny) but presented with enough grim wit to allow the knife to slip in gently.
Den of Geek writer Nina Sordi placed the entry as the fourth best of the series in 2009, viewing its bleak humor and "thought-provoking moments" of dialogue as the factors that made it one of the most popular episodes.
The dialogue is as funny as the situation is bleak.
The checklist of clichés they employ is a long one and includes an old-time setting, convoluted plotting, graphic sexuality and violence, an overwhelmingly bleak view of humanity, and classically trained actors reciting gibberish dialogue.
Unless Mr Jonathan's dialogue committee can get going fast, the outlook seems bleak.
As my taxi sped down the bleak southern highway to Imam Khomeini International Airport, a snippet of dialogue played, unbidden, in my mind.
Murphy tears through this bleak space, playing a cast of increasingly hostile small-town characters, and engaging in a ritualised dialogue with the disembodied voice of his "Mammy".
Dialogue, characters, emotional trajectories and performances never wobbled for a second in a drama that switched from sunny to bleak in a heartbeat.
