fiction, and one of the wonderful aspects of this film is how much the political trickery cuts to the bone. Vasily Stalin the dictator's vodka guzzling son gets on the podium, for instance, and military jets streak across the sky and drown out his speech. A planned distraction? Of course. Stunts like this could happen anywhere and are happening everywhere. The film rings true. It is an eye-opening and fabulous glimpse of the political underworld. This is how people get killed or locked away, when their stories don't fit. The actors are amazingly good, especially Jeffrey Tambor as Malenkov, Steve Buscemi as Khrushchev and Jason Isaacs as Zhukov. If you like politics and history as much as I do, you will love this. The film is in English and a variety of accents. This device the various accents heightens the aspect of chaos and confusion. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival.

the penalty for getting caught in Russia has a nasty finality to it. And so what would you expect upon the death of leader who ran the country with a flawed ideological rule book, where death or exile was the punishment for any form of disagreement? Refer to the paragraph above and add in a bit of chaos!Well this film shows pretty much what happened and to my mind it's brilliantly portrayed.The members of the politbureau who stood in all their resplendent power on the balcony at Red Square proved, with one or two exceptions, that they were just Stalin's lackeys and hopelessly out of their depth when they actually had to make decisions for themselves. Steve Buscemi plays a wonderful part as Khrushchev who is portrayed as one of the stronger members of the schemers after the Boss dies.Simon Russell Beale is superb as Beria, the ultimate hatchet man for the system.Jason Isaacs as General Zhukov has the best part in the whole movie. A tough no-nonsense, do what's got to be done type of individual.I thought that Molotov was unfairly cast as a bit of a bumbler when real history shows that he was a mulish, ruthless messenger who would not give up a blade of grass in negotiations.All the rest of the cast do a fabulous job and I love the way they all have cockney type accents, especially Joe in the opening scenes.Of course there's two routes you can go with making a movie like this, one is to tell the story as the tragedy it was with all of the emotive Russian Music that's available. Or you can satirize it as the absolute travesty that it was. If you take the second option, you can poke fun at the ineptitude and blind obedience. Poke fun at any crazy interpretation of the concept of communism that happened to be in favour on any particular day. Interpretations that to most of today's enlightened minds are just ludicrous!I like Iannucci's approach to telling the story, with just the right amount of humour injected to take the real edge off what happened and yet educate us as to the horrible and easily repeatable reality.

won't be for the faint hearted, it can be violent in a very gruesome sense. While it is very evocative and well-researched, it is history but not quite as we know it kind of like a more sophisticated version of Horrible Histories . Some may have a problem with the film not having authentic Soviet accents, and instead a mix of English and US ones, to me this was not a problem as there are many adaptations of Russian literature that mostly don't attempt authentic accents and when they are attempted it has wildly variable results.2017 has been a very hit and miss year from personal opinion for films. Some very good to great films and also some less than average to rubbish ones, as well as ones that fall somewhere in between. Some may say that for any year in film, but to me 2017 was one of the most hit and miss. 'The Death of Stalin' is a clear highlight. Didn't find that much wrong with it, the character of Svetlana is not as interesting and doesn't have the same depth as the rest of the characters perhaps but this is compensated by Andrea Riseborough still making the most of what she has. The occasional clunker in the writing too but they are vastly out shadowed by the rest of the script being so good.Even with a couple of minor reservations, 'The Death of Stalin' as said succeeds in achieving a very difficult task and achieving an ideal balance. Despite how it sounds it is not even close to being as offensive as it easily could have been, making something funny out of one of the darkest maybe the darkest though it's not in a particularly good, if nowhere near as terrible, state now either periods for Russia/The Soviet Union on paper does not sound tasteful, but 'The Death of Stalin' splendidly works its way around that potential issue.Visually, 'The Death of Stalin' looks beautiful. The settings and costumes are meticulous in detail and evocative, a lot of homework went into recreating this period, looking both sumptuous and atmospheric. The cinematography is fluid and natural and has the right amount of grit and audaciousness. The music has a mix of the rousing and understated.Armando Iannucci directs with complete command and control of the subject, his trademark touches of political amorality and dark and sometimes broad but witty and offbeat humour come through loud and clear. He doesn't try to soften reality, nor does he try to make it one big joke, he could easily have done that but he doesn't and he deserves a lot of credit for that.Further good things are a clever script that has genuinely funny moments and also some truly thought-provoking ones. As soon as the opening sequence begins and happens one knows they're in for a treat. 'The Death of Stalin' is never dull and is hugely entertaining but also has a darker edge in exploring the full terror of Soviet life during the Great Terror, struggle for power and the purge and not trivialising it, it's actually pretty harrowing and poignant.One cannot talk about 'The Death of Stalin' without mentioning the uniformly outstanding cast, the standouts being Simon Russell Beale giving a performance of almost Shakespearean complexity and Steve Buscemi who bags some of the best moments.Jason Isaacs steals scenes when he appears and Paddy Considine delights in his , Andrea Riseborough makes the most of her role and Rupert Friend being this good was a pleasant surprise. Michael Palin is indeed more subdued form than usual but it suited the character and he does it perfectly, personally like that side to him. Jeffrey Tambor is great fun and Olga Kurylenko is expressive.Summarising, really great and one of 2017's best films. 9/10 Bethany Cox

and delightfully humorous at times.The whole cast played their parts well and played them "straight" - which only heightened the humor and the horror of what life was like under Stalin in the Soviet Union. Even the nominal "hero" of the tale, Nakita Khrushchev, is realistically portrayed as being just as conniving and callous and power hungry as everyone else. Buscemi would seem an odd choice for that particular role but he pulls it off with style and excellence. So too does Simon Russell Beale in his portrayal of Beria. This is a nicely done film with excellent production values, a great script, fine acting, excellent pacing, and a compelling tale that is well told.I highly recommend it!

films I want to see again. 9/10

dust. There's more than a single sittings' content in this film which deserves another viewing. Impressive and engaging story-telling based on real life events. Bravo all.

actually guilty of comitting. Some people might find it offensive that they are portrayed as quite funny and engaging characters. But I think Iannucci does such a good job reminding the audience of the nature of these people that he keeps a balance and really succeeds with this movie. Very enjoyable. One of the best movies of the year. I really enjoyed this - and if you like whitty dialogue, good acting and an intelligently unfolded plot - you will too.