Movie Title: The Death of Stalin
Director: Armando Iannucci
Writer: Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, Ian Martin
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Paul Chahidi, Dermot Crowley, Adrian McLoughlin, Paul Whitehouse, Jeffrey Tambor
Review: When tyrannical dictator Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) dies in 1953, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to become the next Soviet leader. Among the contenders are the dweebish Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), the wily Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) and Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale) -- the sadistic secret police chief. As they bumble, brawl and back-stab their way to the top, the question remains -- just who is running the government?
If you're a fan of political satire, then you positively must check out The Death of Stalin. This movie is laugh out loud funny throughout and absolutely ridiculous...in a good way! This film is a somewhat historically accurate, but wildly inaccurate depiction of the events surrounding and immediately after the death of noted Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin. The characters you see are real, some of the storylines and circumstances are partially real, but everything else is mostly fictionalized and amplified to bring you one silly representation of the post-Stalin political picture in the Soviet Union. If you've seen Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, then you've probably seen this concept in action before.
This film benefits from a strong ensemble cast, and a brand of humor that's both subtle and sophisticated. Armando Iannucci's brand of satire should certainly be commended. Where some movies almost entice the audience to laugh with cheap jokes, I thoroughly enjoy movies that are well-written and are inherently funny as a result. While the entire cast should be applauded, I thought Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor, and Rupert Friend really stood out as Nikita Khrushchev, Georgy Malenkov, and Vasily Stalin respectively. These three were completely off-the-wall insane, and delivered countless laughs. The hilarity is inspired by true events, but never makes light of their oftentimes horrible nature. This movie blurs the lines between being brilliantly smart and clever, while also incredibly dumb and goofy at the same time. The result is one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. I can't recommend this film enough, and everyone ought to watch this ASAP!
Fun Fact: Director Armando Iannucci insisted on not having the characters speak with Russian accents, for two reasons: he thought it would take audiences out of the film, and he did not want the actors to worry about their accent when improvising. In an interview on BBC Radio 5 for the film's U.K. release, Iannucci stated that Russian journalists who had seen it praised the decision.