Having created or worked on the likes of The Day Today, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, The Thick of It, and Veep, Armando Iannucci is a master of satire and social commentary. With The Death of Stalin, the Glasgow-born Iannucci puts his own unique spin on the death of Josef Stalin and the subsequent power struggle that followed. Based on Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin’s graphic novel La mort de Staline, here we have a film that many a genre fan was chomping at the bit to check out. Does it live up to those hefty expectations, though? Let’s take a look.
Set in 1953, The Death of Stalin centres on the final days of the feared dictator of the Soviet Union and the ensuing madness that follows his passing. All of which is played out by lashings of dark comedy, satirical mastery, and a broad range of largely British and American accents. To say this is your usual historical piece would be quite the faux description, but the picture is indeed factual for the most part, just with a more humourous spin put on proceedings and the odd historical liberty taken here or there. As for the cast, a ridiculously impressive ensemble has been put together by Iannucci. While Adrian McLoughlin’s Stalin is essentially a supporting player in the film that adorns his name, it’s left to heavy hitters such as Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor, and Michael Palin to carry the load as the Central Committee desperate to bring some sort of order to the post-Stalin Soviet Union. Then there’s Andrea Riseborough and Rupert Friend as the children of Stalin, both vastly different characters who turn up to make sure their father’s send-off goes off without a hitch. Oh, and there’s Jason Isaacs, who absolutely steals every scene he’s in as no-nonsense Minister of Defence Georgy Zhukov – all with a thick Yorkshire accent. Throw in names like Olga Kurylenko, Paul Whitehouse, Paddy Considine, Tom Brooke, and Richard Brake, and you can see why The Death of Stalin has been so lauded for its vast cast.
While Jason Isaacs is at his scenery-devouring best, Simon Russell Beale is on splendidly-shithouse form as the slimy Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the ominous NKVD (aka the secret police). While he calculates and plots, we have Jeffrey Tambor as Vyacheslav Molotov, the dopey wet lettuce of a figure who seems destined to take over from Stalin. Of course, Steve Buscemi is as brilliantly Steve Buscemi as ever as Nikita Khrushchev, somehow harnessing a fine balance between Boardwalk Empire’s Nucky Thompson and one of the quirky oddballs he’s played in several Adam Sandler movies over the years.
Showcasing humour in the panic of the times is a major component of The Death of Stalin’s charm, and there’s the poking of fun at the irony of such crazy situations as the struggle to find a decent doctor after Stalin falls ill. Why’s that such a tricky task? Well, that’d be down to Stalin having imprisoned or killed all of the good docs as part of his clinical rule. This is a tale in which no characters are fully pardoned for their sins, and each of the key players has their own murky pasts and acts to reflect on regardless of how endearing they may come across in Iannucci’s film.
With snappy dialogue littered throughout, The Death of Stalin is a film that rockets by at a frenetic pace, with the aforementioned ensemble lapping up the darkly comedic gems afforded to them. If there’s some negatives to take away from the picture, one of the big ones is indeed its comedic tone. There are moments of humour that are pitch-perfect for the subject matter, but then there are certain beats that just seem ill-advised or, dare we say it, too bleak and dark to resonate with the feel of the rest of the movie. Still, for the most part The Death of Stalin provides an enthralling watch that is littered with far more hits than misses.
Is this the masterpiece that many of us were hoping for? Ultimately, no it’s not. It is still a fascinating, engaging, and tongue-in-cheek look at one of the most chaotic of political times and the final moments of one of the most ruthless dictators the world has ever known.
Special Features: Interviews with the cast and crew / Deleted scenes
THE DEATH OF STALIN / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: ARMANDO IANNUCCI / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: STEVE BUSCEMI, SIMON RUSSELL BEALE, JEFFREY TAMBOR, ADRIAN MCLOUGHLIN, OLGA KURYLENKO, ANDREA RISEBOROUGH, JASON ISAACS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
