Writer: Fabien Nury (Screenplay) Fabien Nury, Thierry Robin (Comic Book)
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Jeffrey Tambor
Plot: Moscow, 1953. After being in power for nearly 30 years, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin takes ill and quickly dies. Now the members of the Council of Ministers scramble for power.
Tagline – Russia 1953. A nation in fear of one man.
Runtime: 1 Hour 47 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Basic Comedy
Story: The Death of Stalin starts as we dive into communist Soviet, under dictator Josef Stalin, we see how his closest ministers Lavrenti Beria (Beale), Georgy Malenkov (Tambor), Nikita Khrushchev (Buscemi) and Vyacheslav Molotiv (Palin) who enjoy his ruling, knowing how to keep things quiet, until he has a heart attack, dying.
Now the men must work together to keep the story straight about what happened, bringing in his children, the calm Svetlana (Riseborough) and the aggressive Vasily (Friend). With the funeral prepared, we see how each of the men deals with the funeral and the future for the Soviet Union.
Thoughts on The Death of Stalin
Characters – When it comes to the characters, we get a complete host of different ministers and comrades who served under Stalin, each one has their own agenda after his death, seeing it as a chance to move into power. Each one will get made out to be an over the top style as the characters show how devoted the Russians were towards Stalin because of their fear.
Performances – When we look at the big cast, we have a host of comedic performances that will get laughs at times, will show just how over the top everybody has become, it is the performances that are completely over the top which stand out more, other wise it can see people becoming slightly held back.
Story – The story here follows the men in power tactically trying to push their own agendas after the death of their leader Stalin, in a satirical way. Where this story might miss out at times, is when it is trying to mix the reality of what did happen, by just driving the silliness into comedy, we have glimpses of the history lesson, but not enough, we make fun of the seriousness that saw countless victims of this horrible leaders, which just didn’t make this an enjoyable in anyway.
Comedy – The comedy is just showing how over the top the people in this world would be and have become, it doesn’t always work, with the couple of laughs working at the right time.
Settings – The film uses the different locations of the Soviet leaders would operate and look to gain power.
Scene of the Movie – Moving the body.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It doesn’t get very funny.
Final Thoughts – This is a satirical comedy that doesn’t get enough laughs, which only seem to be one dimensional for the most part.
Overall: Poor satirical comedy.