Laura McDonald
Comrade Stalin, I’ll take it from here.
In 1953 the feared leader of Russia, Josef Stalin, unexpectedly collapses after a live broadcast of a Mozart recital. Once Stalin is found down, his Deputy General Secretary (Georgy Malenkov) and NKVD head (Lavrenti Beria) begin plotting on who should replace him. The rest of the Central Committee arrive in Stalin’s dacha to help formulate a plan to diagnose and resuscitate their ‘beloved’ leader. After calling in a team of physicians who are not either not in Gulag or dead, they learn that Stalin has suffered a cerebral hemorrhage but recovery is not expected. Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana, arrives just in time to see her father pass away as the NKVD search for her brother Vasily. The drunken Vasily disrupts the preparations of the body with his drunken nonsense as his sister struggles to determine who she can trust between Beria and Moscow Party Head Nikita Khrushchev. At the first committee meeting Beria delivers many of Khrushchev’s ideas as his own and places most of the responsibility of government affairs on himself while assigning the funeral details to Khrushchev. As the three days of mourning pass by the plot thickens as the committee joins forces with the Soviet Army and battles for leadership.
I’ve had nightmares that make more sense than this.
Bravo! In a year where the popular movies involve either superheroes, dying teenagers, or science fiction, The Death of Stalin is a welcome satire to mature viewers who appreciate a good comedy that is based more on intellectual humor rather than slapstick humor. The dark nature of the story is superbly executed by a vastly experienced and outstanding cast. Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, and Jeffrey Tambor stand out in the ensemble cast with their performances while Andrea Riseborough (Oblivion) is almost unrecognizable in her role as Stalin’s daughter. As the lead female actor, Riseborough’s raw talent steals many scenes with her passionate and expressive performance. Her former cast mate in the 2013 blockbuster, Oblivion, Olga Kurylenko plays a small but significant role in the grand scheme of things. The director, Armando Iannucci, is no stranger to political comedies with his Oscar nominated film In the Loop and his Prime time Emmy winning TV series Veep (2012-current). While I didn’t laugh out loud at anytime during the 107 minute running time, the entire experience left me very amused and amazed with Iannucci’s peek into history. I believe that a political satire such as this (like The Interview) is not meant to start a war or disrespect a country but to simply entertain the masses who enjoy fine film making and that is does.                        ~Movie Buffette
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