The Death of Stalin

A completely awesome comedy, and what I like most is the fact that it’s not even a little idiotic. The film humorously talks about serious things without ridiculing or belittling them. The script is packed with tremendous jokes, the cast works together like clockwork (Steve Buscemi and Michael Palin were a safe bet, but when Jason Isaacs' Zhukov burst onto the scene, everything got even better) and not a single joke is left without a point. Hand on heart, the Russians would ban this film even if it wasn't a comedy and if it depicted everything literally and deadly seriously - but then I would certainly have no desire to see it again and again. And again. (17/04/2018)

We lost the pace. I don't even recognize Armando Iannucci because this could not possibly be the same writer who was responsible for the first four seasons of Veep. I'm not saying that he didn't touch upon controversial and sensitive topics there, but he definitely didn't handle them with subtlety. This controversial area deserves deep and sharp cuts, but instead you get good humor and some kind of secondary layer for the audience to search for, not to mention the clever and discreet jokes. The last salvation, of course, are the actors, especially the truly despicable Simon Russell Beale and the eagerly anticipated Jason Isaacs, who gets about one-tenth of the screen time that I expected after watching the trailer. (06/08/2018)

House of Cards demonises politics as a rotten evil, the Danish government presents an explosive ideal of how politics should look, the classic satire Yes, Minister ridicules the incompetence and stubbornness of top politicians and the Czech Kancelář Blaník takes the blame off of politicians and depicts professionally depersonalised and opportunistic lobbyists as the instigators of all evil. This map, on which every viewer can choose which of these image of politics suits his or her prejudices or ideals, is essentially supplemented by the British satirist Armando Iannucci, who, unlike all the others, depicts politics as uncontrolled chaos. Thanks to this, he is characteristically able to include in his screenplays, with the phenomenal – and for many epigones, inspiring - political sitcom The Thick of It at the fore, all of the above-mentioned views on politics through individual characters. The initial situation of The Death of Stalin is exactly Iannucci's characteristic political chaos, not only in the sense of what started immediately after Stalin's death, but also in the sense of the entire degenerate totalitarian regime of the USSR of late Stalinism, where only incompetents, nutcases, toadies, manipulators and morons remained in high positions, because all of the capable people had been eliminated. (07/07/2019)

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to make of this film at first. It felt weird without Russian language, although I understand that it would be impossible. Some of the jokes didn’t work for me. Gradually, I started having fun, and by the time Zhukov arrived on the scene, I was laughing like crazy. The worst thing about the film was the casting of Stalin, which went horribly wrong and made Joseph Vissarionovich look like a parody of himself. By contrast, Robert Duvall was practically perfect in 1992 Stalin. (04/09/2018)

The perfect film to “celebrate” the Victorious February. It’s very funny and dark, but also chilling when you realise that some of the events portrayed are not that far from the realities of a totalitarian regime. So, let’s hope that the gradual stupidisation of this country won’t make us go through something like this again. Otherwise, when compared to this film, the Czech satire President Blanik looks pretty sad. It’s on another level. (25/02/2018)