The Death of Stalin

The Death of Stalin

Armando Ianucci is one of the great brilliant voices in modern comedy. From the brilliant fake British news show The Day Today, to the treasured character Alan Partridge to the up-send of British Parliament The Thick of It, to it's film adaptation In the Loop, to his mighty entrance into American comedy, Veep, this is a guy who really knows how to satirize politics and really really knows how to write endlessly creative and earth-shattering insults, and The Death of Stalin is no exception.

When Joseph Stalin dies suddenly, a power struggle explodes between the members of his staff. It gets quite a bit more complicated than that, but that's the movie in a nutshell. I'm not a history major, but from what I've heard of historians' response to this film, it's not very historically accurate. That being said, it's not exactly trying to be a documentary. The actors all keep their own accents instead of attempting Russian ones, so everyone in the film, with the exception of Steve Buscemi and Jeffrey Tambor (who are both brilliant), has a British accent.

The dialogue (which is largely improvised) is very much in line with Ianucci's other work, so fans of Veep (including myself) will be satisfied, though I actually would've liked to have seen even more insult-throwing from these historical monsters that are played by such wonderful actors.

It's much darker than Ianucci's other work, which is to be expected when it's based on history and so many innocent people are being killed, but that makes it all the more unique of an addition to his oeuvre.

I'm keeping this one super short both because I really don't have much to say about it and because I recommend checking it out for yourself. May Armando Ianucci continue his wonderfully brutal, vulgar, panicky, satirical streak across the modern comedy world.