Jean-Paul’s rating: 4/5 stars
Bottom Line: The strangest topic for a comedy possibly ever. Legitimately funny after a slow start, though probably not for everyone.
“The Death of Stalin” is a black comedy that portrays the real life events of the behind the scenes rush to power after the, well, the death of Stalin. All the key players are portrayed as conniving and bumbling idiots and sycophants who got to where they were more because of their ability to kiss Stalin’s ass than their actual abilities to run a country. Very much like the Trump Administration only with actual death lists instead of fantasy ones.
The movie needs to lay some groundwork so it takes a bit of time to get going. There are a lot of characters and setting the tone of the movie is important if what’s to come is going to be actually funny. By the time Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) dies, the stage has been set and the rest of the movie is pretty darned funny as Beria (Simon Russel Beale), Malenkov (Jeffery Tambor), Krhushchev (Steve Buscemi), and Molotov (Michael Palin) scheme and betray their way to fill Stalin’s shoes. You would not suspect that this chain of events would make for great comic appeal, but it is done with heavy doses of irony and satire which is highly appropriate for the events of Russia during this time.
Despite a few of the cast members, this is very obviously not a U.S. made movie, but a British one. As a result, its comedy is pretty British. For those that don’t know what that means, go watch the British version of “The Office” then watch the U.S. one. One is uncomfortably funny and the other stars Steve Carell. l I am pretty sure this movie could not have been made in the U.S. because of this. Our teeth are much too perfect to write comedy like this.
This movie is not for everyone. Especially if you do not like British comedies. If you do not like British comedies, you are wrong, but comedy is very subjective and you are wrong. I was amused to discover that this movie was based on a comic book, also not made in the U.S. It makes me wonder how much good media we are missing because we live in our super-media-saturated little corner of the globe where people like Transformers movies.