Reviews now on YouTube! | Watch here

Larsen On Film

  • Review Library
  • Subscribe
  • Why I’m Wrong
  • About
  • Books

The Death of Stalin

Farce meets fascism in The Death of Stalin, a spoof of the power struggle that took place around Joseph Stalin’s last days, from director and political satirist Armando Iannucci (In the Loop, Veep). There is impeccable timing in the performances and plenty of big laughs (the committee members stumbling to transport Stalin’s incapacitated body from his office to his bed, jockeying for political position in the process, is a supreme bit of slapstick). Yet the chuckles get hollower and hollower as the reality of the atrocities committed by the regime sinks in. That’s likely the movie’s point—and I do think it maintains an admirable balance of gallows humor and clear-eyed history—but as The Death of Stalin goes on, its cleverness withers into something more wearying. With Adrian McLoughlin (briefly) as Stalin; Jeffrey Tambor as Georgy Malenkov, his deer-in-the-headlights successor; Steve Buscemi as Nikita Khrushchev, who would ultimately emerge as the face of the Soviet Union; and Simon Russell Beale, at turns sputteringly funny and spine-tinglingly evil as Lavrenti Beria, the head of Stalin’s secret police.

Recent Reviews

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Drama Rated PG

“Winger gives us someone incredibly unique and specific…”

Eddington (2025)

Drama Rated R

“… in its depiction of the brain rot that spread from sea to shining sea, it’s at least a curdled curiosity.”

Hollywood Story (1951)

Thriller Rated NR

“The kind of movie where even the mortuary gets a seductive neon sign.”


Search Review Library

Sponsored by the following | become a sponsor



SUBSCRIBE


Sign up to receive emails

Sign up to get new reviews and updates delivered to your inbox!

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!




FOLLOW ONLINE



All rights reserved. All Content ©2024 J. Larsen
maintained by Big Ocean Studios

TOP