The Death of a Dictator Begins a Race for Political Control

Simon Russell Beale (left) and Jeffrey Tambor in
"The Death of Stalin"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

Tense eras in international politics can lend themselves well to cinematic comedy.  It happened with Charlie Chaplin in “The Great Dictator” and Federico Fellini in “Amarcord,” and to lesser, but still somewhat humorous results in Larry Charles’ “The Dictator” and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s “The Interview.”  

Director Armando Iannucci, who dabbled with political satire in his 2009 film “In the Loop” and his hit television series “Veep,” returns to a different time of political upheaval with “The Death of Stalin,” a well-acted, funny, and surreal view into the events that followed the passing of Joseph Stalin.

In 1953, the Soviet Union’s under the fearsome rule of Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin). After he suffers a cerebral hemorrhage that kills him, his Central Committee is left to pick up the pieces.  When Deputy General Secretary Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) is chosen to replace him, State Security Administrator Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale) and Moscow Party Head Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) each try to persuade Malenkov to enact their political views on the country.

The cast is filled with comedic performances, all of which work well together to create a laugh-out-loud portrait of the incompetence of Stalin’s committee, with the standouts being Tambor, Buscemi, and Beale.  Tambor does wonderful work in displaying his character’s cluelessness, and seeing his character attempt to navigate a job for which he’s so ill-prepared, while going back and forth trying to please both Beria and Khrushchev, makes for a lot of the film’s most humorous moments.  In regard to Buscemi and Beale, it’s a blast to watch their characters always be at odds with each other and trying to see who could come out on top. 

Other memorable performances include Andrea Riseborough as Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana; Rupert Friend as Stalin’s son, Vasily; and Jason Isaacs as Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov.

The screenplay by Iannucci, David Schneider, Ian Martin, and Peter Fellows, which is based on the French graphic novel “La mort de Staline” by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, does well in providing each of their talented cast members with moments to show their comedic skills.  The narrative comes equipped with many characters, which offers an opportunity to see how Stalin’s inner-circle, and a few people outside of it, handle what’s happening to their country.  And, with numerous characters come multiple layers of political intrigue, with each layer being more absurd than the last as people unite with some and turn against others.  This all puts a humorous spin on outrageous and true events, leaving the audience to wonder how such a committee people could be in charge of getting their nation back on track.

Despite this film mostly being a comedy, Iannucci doesn’t lose sight of the dangers that Russia faced when it was in the shadow of Stalin’s Communist Party, and he transitions between lighter and darker moments with ease.  The way in which he’s able to make the occasional transition between these tones is important for this type of story because when a film deals with a tumultuous political climate, it’s relaxing to be able to laugh at it, but then we also have to shake our heads as we ponder how things became that bad.  Iannucci captures all of the ludicrousness as he makes you feel as if you’re being pulled in many directions as you try to keep track of the paths of deceit that the characters travel.  Despite the way that sounds, it’s not too difficult to follow the story; instead, this is an effective way to place us in the middle of this political whirlwind and keep us invested throughout as we learn about the motives of the characters.

During our own turbulent political climate, “The Death of Stalin” exemplifies that, when we’re faced with troublesome leaders, we sometimes need to laugh while making sense out of nonsense.

Final grade: A