‘The Death of Stalin’ Review: Creator of ‘Veep’ Sends Up Russian History

Chris Tilly
Movies
Movies
4.0
of 5
Review Essentials
  • Dark subject
  • But relentlessly funny
  • Combines the sublime and the ridiculous
  • Buscemi, Tambor, Palin all great
  • Indeed, every cast member is on top form

What is The Death of Stalin?

Set in Moscow in 1953, The Death of Stalin kicks off with the Russian leader falling ill, and revolves around his core team of ministers jockeying for position while also desperately trying to not get killed. And when Stalin himself does indeed die, the search is on for who will take charge of the country and fill his sizeable shoes.

Period Piece That Feels Contemporary

Armando Iannucci is a brilliant satirist, first taking down the media in The Day Today and via Alan Partridge. Then taking on British politics through The Thick of It and In the Loop. And more recently setting his sites on America with Veep. But the stories he has told have largely been contemporary. Or at least about very recent history.

Wth The Death of Stalin, he’s travelling to the past, where gulags, firing squads, and political imprisonment and murder were all the rage. But in spite of this being a period piece, the humour is still very much the same, with Iannucci using dumb misunderstandings, bureaucratic mix-ups, and masterful word-play to make those in power look like clowns.

He’s also assembled a fantastic cast to play the historical figures in question. Steve Buscemi is terrific as Krushchev, Jeffrey Tambor’s Malenkov has much in common with Hank from Larry Sanders, and esteemed stage actor Simon Russell Beale is marvellously unpleasant as Beria, frequently the villain of the piece. Rupert Friend and Andrea Riseborough meanhwhile, play Stalin’s troubled kids as spoilt, unhinged and somewhat terrifying brats; and in doing so raise plenty of laughs.

Rather than attempting Russian accents, the cast speak in their own voices, or something close, which oftentimes adds to the humour. Most notably Adrian McLouchlin’s cockney Joseph Stalin, and Jeremy Isaac’s very northern Georgy Zhukov, the character sounding less like a Russian general and more like legendary football manager Brian Clough (he of The Damned United fame).

In The Death of Stalin, the Russian's funeral is played for laughs.

Race to the Top

The bulk of the film’s comedy is fuelled by paranoia and fear. Stalin ruled his people with an iron fist, and so when he becomes incapacitated, and his committee is forced to convene, no one wants to take responsibility for any kind of decision, preferring instead to act collectively in hilariously staged meetings.

His health declines thanks to all the qualified doctors being locked up, and then he dies, precipitating outpourings of grief from the members of his Government. None of it even remotely real.

But with the position at the top becoming open, proceedings take a more serious turn, as committee members jockey, double-cross, and stab each other in the back to replace Stalin as the Russian leader. Rumours, whispers and lies echo around Moscow. And here Buscemi comes to the fore, his Kruschev transforming from something of an idiot (just check out those pyjamas, or his body-slam with Beria) into a bona fide dictator. It’s a subtle but very effective performance.

Michael Palin is also worthy of mention, playing Vyacheslav Molotov with a combination of innocence, confusion, and raw ambition. It’s one of his finest comedic turns since the days of Monty Python. And it comes in a film that’s clearly influenced by the likes of Holy Grail and Life of Brian, taking real and sometimes dark historical truths, and finding the blackest of humour in them. So you’ll be shaking your head as you laugh at the awful things that are being said and done. But you’ll be laughing nevertheless.

The cast is a brilliant ensemble that combines comedians with dramatic actors.

Is The Death of Stalin Good?

They say that comedy is tragedy plus time, and that’s certainly the case when it comes to The Death of Stalin. Armando Iannucci is brilliant at this form of satire, his film attacking the corrupting influence of power, while at the same time poking fun at it.

That combination harks back to the best of Mel Brooks, with a little of Woody Allen’s historical comedies thrown in for good measure. It also calls to mind Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, most obviously when the committee is together and making terrible decisions for all the wrong reasons.

The script that Iannucci and collaborators David Schnieder, Ian Martin and Peter Fellows have written — itself based on the comic books of the same name by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin — is beautifully crafted, working as both farce AND history lesson. And the bizarre combination of actors and accents onscreen really make the material sing, resulting in one of the funniest films of the year; about a subject that seems anything but.

The Death of Stalin screened at Fantastic Fest and will hit UK screens on October 20.

Chris Tilly
Freelance writer. At this point my life is a combination of 1980s horror movies, Crystal Palace football matches, and episodes of I'm Alan Partridge. The first series. When he was in the travel tavern. Not the one after.