The one-liners fly as fast as political fortunes fall in this uproarious, wickedly biting, irreverent satire from the fertile mind of the British political satirist Armando Iannucci (Veep, In the Loop, and The Thick of It).
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Envisage a government run by a collection of power-hungry deranged maniacs. The government leader, the tyrannical dictator Joseph Stalin, possesses a predilection for watching movies; especially westerns. He identifies with the lone hero John Wayne riding off to single-handedly conquer all before him.
In March 1953, Stalin drops dead (from a stroke induced by a note from a pianist comrade whose family he executed) after an evening of drinking, bantering with four members of the Politburo and watching movies.
In a short space of time his parasitic cronies, comprising various party leaders and sycophants, square off in a frantic power struggle to be the next Soviet leader.
Among the contenders are the weedy Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), the wily Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi), and the sadistic secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale).
Their antics and sharp one-liners are a blend of Monty Python and The Marx Brothers. But as they bumble, brawl, and backstab their way to the top, just who is running the government?
They are inept, more concerned with their own pre-eminence and ideological point scoring than the future of the country and its people.
Iannucci's deft touch creates characters that are easy to mock but at the same time he clinically exposes how dangerous they are. And it is this aspect that gives the movie its rationale and sting.
Combining palace intrigue with rapid-fire farce, this audacious comedy is a bitingly funny takedown of bureaucratic dysfunction performed to the hilt by a sparkling ensemble cast.
You will leave pondering whether politics – past, present and the future – is little more than a thirst for power with little concern for the people being governed.
While you laugh at the assortment of political apparatchiks and their infantile antics it is not so easy to laugh them away. In this sense The Death of Stalin resonates so uncomfortably for it holds a black comedic mirror to a world than we can readily identify with.
The movie's underlying solemn point is the danger of conceding truth in the quest for dominance. When power is based on impulse, blind devotion and capriciousness then the resultant ideology is on a very shaky moral ground.
The Death of Stalin is an incredible black comedic political satire. A tragic farce which sweetly balances violent, stressful paranoia with absurd comedy. A mixture of beautifully crafted irony and piercing sincerity.
- When: Sunday July 29
- Time: 4.45pm
- Where: Lilac City Cinema
- Country: UK
- Genre: Satire/comedy
- Cost: $10
- Time: 4.45pm
- Running Time: 108 mins
- Rating: MA15+ (strong language)
