Death of Stalin

Nominee
Platform Prize
Toronto International Film Festival
By turns entertaining and unsettling, with laughs that morph into gasps and uneasy gasps that erupt into queasy, choking laughs.

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The Death of Stalin

The one-liners fly as fast as political fortunes fall in this uproarious, wickedly irreverent satire from Armando Iannucci (Veep, In the Loop). Moscow, 1953: when tyrannical dictator Joseph Stalin drops dead, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to be the next Soviet leader. Among the contenders are the dweeby Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), the wily Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi), and the sadistic secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale). But as they bumble, brawl, and backstab their way to the top, just who is running the government? Combining palace intrigue with rapid-fire farce, this audacious comedy is a bitingly funny takedown of bureaucratic dysfunction performed to the hilt by a sparkling ensemble cast.
R
Genre
Comedy, Bio-pic, Drama
Runtime
107
Language
English
Director
Armando Iannucci
Cast
Steve Buscemi, Olga Kurylenko, Jason Isaacs, Paddy Considine, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Andrea Riseborough
Awards:
Nominee, Platform Prize, Toronto International Film Festival
FEATURED REVIEW
Anthony Lane, New Yorker

And so to “The Death of Stalin,” a startling new film from Armando Iannucci. The title does not lie. Less than twenty minutes into the movie, Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) is found lying on a rug in his dacha, outside Moscow. It is March, 1953, and breakfast is ready, but the great leader has ...

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