The Death of Stalin

The Death of Stalin looks at the final days of the life of Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) the Soviet leader and the clambering of power and control by his successors. Only this is all done through a dark comedy format which I truly enjoyed from start to finish. The beginning of the movie starts at a concerto being hosted by Radio Moscow and after the performance is finished a request from Stalin for a recording of the concerto that was not made, then Paddy Considine has to try to get all the musicians and audience to stay and do the concerto again to make the recording, showing the power and fear Stalin had over the population. But, then he dies soon after and the battle for power begins as the weak successor by the rules is George Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) who doesn’t like to make decisions and easily persuaded by others. Lavrenti Beria (Simon Russell Beale) is the head of the NKVD and wants to have full police state power over the country, where Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) wants a little more reform within the government. This is not a movie for everyone as it is a political satire masquerading as a dark comedy, it is a movie that you have to invest in and not just casually watch to keep up with who is plotting what and each persons role in the events happening. While the movie tackles a very serious time in Russian history and horrid events that took place within the span the movie is presenting it delivers the history with humor while making sure the impact of the events is still prevalent. Going into the end of the second act I was getting a little fidgety as it started lagging a little as it becomes obvious where things are going, once the final act gets underway it started clipping along again. This is one that like myself I watched it alone late night when I didn’t have anything else to do and once it started going I was having fun with it. C.