The Death of Stalin

Watch Movies TV -***DISCLAIMER*** The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion (or other commenters), that's fine. To each their own. These reviews are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay. 4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching! There was no stalin on the laughs with this one!  Ha ha...oh gawd, I hate myself for that one.

The Death of Stalin – 4 out of 5

I’m not really a history buff but I do like a good comedy—and when the comedy goes dark, then I will jump at the opportunity to see it…even if it involves a history lesson (a history lesson that is, for the most part, almost completely inaccurate).  Add in the fact that The Death of Stalin has some great talent in it and has been getting tremendous reviews, I went into this film with some high hopes.  The feature didn’t disappoint.

One complaint I did have, though, was how they spoiled the fate of Stalin
in the very title of the film.

After a cerebral hemorrhage incapacitates Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin), the members of the Central Committee panic over how the country will be run in the man’s absence.  The head of the NKVD; Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale),  decides that Deputy General Secretary Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) should take leadership because he can be the easiest one to manipulate.  Matters quickly start to spiral out of control as the other members of the committee; Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) and Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin), get involved and all hell breaks loose in the form of scheming and backstabbing.

That's a whole lot of awesome in one screenshot.

Overall, I really enjoyed the dark comedy that is The Death of Stalin.  It has a really strong cast, the story flows very well, and the humor is all kinds of dark and witty.  Yes, the film isn’t historically accurate—hell, the actors aren’t even doing Russian accents—but that’s okay.  The film’s emphasis is lampooning the change in power and the madness of plotting and scheming rather than expressing something that can be used to make education fun.  That’s honestly why I think this film was so amusing:  The humor came first.  Maybe it's because Michael Palin was in it but the film had a very Monty Python-esque approach to its historical storytelling...but with significantly less of their trademark goofiness and more of their insightful and amusing insights.

Jason Isaacs looks like a man who shouldn't be able to pull off funny but rather
just be a dude who can make you shit your pants with fear from just a
look but, damn, was he funny in this one.

The element that really backed up the humor of this one is the performances.  Yes, the writing is great but the cast really made that writing sing.  Everyone is riding that perfect line for the tone the film delivers.  At first it was strange to see these Russian character have very un-Russian accents—especially in the case of Steven Buscemi—but I was amazed at how quickly I was able to look past this and become engrossed in what was occurring.  The only real problem I had was with Jeffrey Tambor and that had everything to do with me being unable to separate the art from the artist and the accusations of sexual misconduct that has been brought against him.  It didn't toss me out of the feature or make me deny he was giving a great performance but the notion was constantly in the back of my head every time he was on screen.

Hearing about the accusations against Tambor, I can no longer reference his
Arrested Development line, "Pop Pop horny, Michael," without feeling weird.

Dark comedies are not everyone’s cup of tea.  They are definitely an acquired taste but that’s really the case with all types of humor.  From a personal standpoint, I really enjoy dark comedies and The Death of Stalin is definitely entertaining.  The tone they brought has the right level of over-the-top mixed with the bleak gags and it is delivered superbly by a fantastic cast.  Overall, it’s a fun, very skewed look at history and told in a very gratifying lampooning fashion.