The Death of Stalin

"We are not children!" exclaims Svetlana, daughter of the recently deceased Josef Stalin.  Ah, but you are, dear.  All of you.  Your oafish brother Vasily, certainly.   The members of the Central Committee? Deputy General Secretary Georgy Malenkov finds himself in charge when Stalin is felled by a hemorrhage, but it is purely ceremonial.  Just as well for someone so daffy.  Nikita Kruschev is sharp but prone to outbursts, though no one doubts his dedication when he shows up in his pajamas because when he gets a call, he refuses to be tardy.  Interior Minister Lavrentie Beria all but smacks his lips when his boss finally kicks the bucket, and gleefully assumes the role of puppeteer.

2017's THE DEATH OF STALIN takes a humorous look at the turmoil in Moscow following the titular event in 1953.  Given what transpired, darkly humorous.  Writer/director Armando Iannucci, known for his stinging political satires, goes balls out with this fly on the wall glimpse of behind the Iron Curtain schemery, though usually with a distinctively British sensibility (and wisely no one in this cast attempts a Russian brogue).  It's a perfect fit for this story, as go most political tales.  Children in grown up bodies going about screaming and plotting and creating protocols.   Does it matter what ism is at work?  Note how Iannucci introduces each character.

The cast is fabulous.  Steve Buscemi as Kruschev is manic and maybe just this side of over the top, always in control of his performance.  Jeffery Tambor completely gets Malenkov's narcciscism and confusion.  Michael Palin, so spot on as Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, deftly portrays insistent Party loyalty, and his presence fits in with some vaguely Monty Pythonesque moments.  Jason Isaacs is hilarious as highly decorated Red Army officer Zhokov, quite instrumental in the fate of Beria (Simon Russell Beale, also wonderful).  Svetlana and Vasily (Andrea Riseborough and Rupert Friend) get their own golden moments as two batty (though in much different ways) children of the revolution.

The film, which achieves a cinematic air and impressive production design not shared by 2009's brilliant IN THE LOOP, is very funny at times, mainly for how these men and women behave.  Predictably, scholars have taken the film's historic accuracy to task, but Iannucci responded that he "chose to tone down real-life absurdity."  Who would believe the whole truth anyway? I think the director took the right approach in this case - so many horrific events, clearly deserving of a real life reverence, in turn deserve an acidic telling in an altered farce.  To make all of it more palatable?