The Death of Stalin

Official Australian release date: 29/3/18. Viewed: 2/4/18.

Director: Armando Iannucci

Actors: Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Adrian McLoughlin, Jeffrey Tambor

Genre: Comedy / War

Rating: MA

  

‘The Death of Stalin’ is a satirical look at 1950’s USSR (from the director of ‘In The Loop’ a hilarious look at British politics, who’s also the creator of ‘Veep’). This is similar to ‘In The Loop’, if not quite as good, with mostly British actors playing Russians and not changing their accents, making for a refreshing and playful tone. Even though the majority are British – including Beria (Russell Beale), Molotov (Palin), Zhuov (Isaacs) & Stalin (McLoughlin) – two of the main actors are American: Krushchev (Buscemi) and Malenkov (Tambor).

The film is basically about Beria, head of NKVD (Internal Affairs) and Krushchev, First Secretary, scheming and plotting to run Russia after Stalin dies – even though it’s technically Malenkov, who’s basically a puppet. There’s plenty of fun digs at how inept the Soviets were, but also some commentary on how bad things were during the Cold War. Main problem with the film is the lack of backstory – obviously based somewhat on facts, but a lot of creative license taken – but things happen so fast that it takes a while to figure out who’s who, etc.

There’s a few laughs, but no real hilarious moments, expect maybe when Buscemi tries to swap places with Tambor. There’s plenty to like, and all the actors are good, especially Buscemi, Kurylenko and Russell Beale – and always good to see a Python on screen with Palin. However, I felt it lacked something to make it a truly great comedy.

Overall: Enjoyable historical/political satire.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.