2017 Directed by Armando Iannucci
When tyrannical dictator Josef Stalin dies in 1953, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to become the next Soviet leader. Among the contenders are the dweebish Georgy Malenkov, the wily Nikita Khrushchev and Lavrenti Beria, the sadistic secret police chief.
Steve Buscemi Simon Russell Beale Paddy Considine Rupert Friend Jason Isaacs Olga Kurylenko Michael Palin Andrea Riseborough Paul Chahidi Dermot Crowley Paul Whitehouse Adrian McLoughlin Jeffrey Tambor Tom Brooke Justin Edwards Paul Ready Yulya Muhrygina Andrey Korzhenevskiy Roger Ashton-Griffiths Jeremy Limb Andy Gathergood Alexander Piskunov Ruslav Neupokoev Alla Bineeva Nicholas Woodeson Elaine Caxton George Potts Sylvestra Le Touzel Nicholas Sidi Show All…
I did something so insulting.... so blasphemous... so abhorrent.
Ready?
I watched this film on the plane.
BUT
I still laughed my ass off and think it’s one of my faves so far this year. The comic timing is impeccable. The performances shine. My god... Paddy Considine really shows his comedy chops.
Loved it and recommend seeing it ASAP. But not on a plane... it deserves better.
VEEP meets CITY OF GOD.
more grim than funny, but still plenty funny. by far my favorite thing that Armando Iannucci has ever done.
“Who would put a lamp on a chair?”
Unabashedly declaring this the best
[dark (as FUCK)] comedy of last year;
Iannucci's the master political satirist.
75
Fucking hysterical, mostly for showcasing the idiocy in group government dynamics while never shying away from the violence and complete disregard for human life around the chaotic remnants of the regime. In various scenes set inside the torture chambers, background bodies are shot (both on and off screen), conveying the same narrative function as a moment where a nameless prisoner tumbles outrageously down the stairs. The Death of Stalin wrestles with hilarity and horror within the same confined, decedent spaces, and the disruptions of each are startling. In a showing before mine, a woman apparently yelled "Communism isn't funny!" before storming out. Of course, even if it wasn't funny (and The Death of Stalin almost constantly is -like a squabbling contest between imbeciles), the film suggests something far worse: that it's true and, to quote The Giant in Twin Peaks, "it is happening again."
Now that's a fucking dark comedy. Very very funny and sharp and brilliant, but tonally upsetting and maybe a little confusing in a way I need some time to process? Or, just need to know more about history for. Who can say! I think I liked it!
This is how I picture an average day in the Trump administration, minus the political murder.
Like an opposite-Vice in that the longer I think about it, the more I like it (aka it's actually a well-made and funny historical satire).
Iannucci definitely has a much better grasp than McKay on the kinds of comedy you can extract from the simple situation of bumbling idiots in power. Yet he also realizes the horrific gravity of such a scenario, and there definitely is a real horror to the carelessness with which violence is administered here, most often to innocents. The accidental murder of 1,500 is treated with the annoyed scolding of someone forgetting to take the garbage out.
The comedy…
Enjoyed the movie, but wasn’t as funny as I was expecting. The trailer ruins most of the big comedic moments.
Sharp satire that imagines the desperate scramble for power and performative loyalty in the immediate aftermath of the death of a tyrant. Often funny, but just as present is the terror inflicted on the lower classes by those in precarious and constantly shifting positions of leadership. This film has the same kinetic energy and wit of Veep, but the stakes felt so much bigger here, and darker.
I was honestly blown away by how biting, how uncaring, how evil, and how utterly hilarious this is.
This is the world with no forgiveness, love, or humility... told in the light of how laughably ridiculous such a world is.
The one shinning North Star is the pianist; filling the world with music, speaking truth, and confidently waiting for the hope of heaven - a world without all of us immoral idiots.
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