2017’s The Death of Stalin deals with some extremely heavy subject matter in a brilliant comedic way that reveals the flaws in the system while also subtly showing the connections to our own current system. This isn’t anything new. Making comedic commentary on politics both past and present is nothing new. That being said, I feel that The Death of Stalin does enough to distinct itself from other comedies of its style while also facing some of the similar struggles many do. The cast is made up of a recognizable bunch including Jason Isaace, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Palin, who all give fairly good performances. The film takes a time period that isn’t terribly well known about, the time that Stalin died. This allows some creativity in what the characters do, but as someone who isn’t all that into history, that didn’t matter. In a lot of ways, this is Weekend at Bernie’s but Soviet, and that makes for an interesting premise to say the least.
While I didn’t find myself laughing out loud all that much, Death of Stalin certainly has a unique comedic style, in a way, mixing mockumentary with Python. While I enjoyed that, the mixing is also where I found my biggest problem with the film. The comedy is all over the place, often doing a little bit of just about every style of comedy. This can work, but, with a film this fast paced, it would have been refreshing to see a consistent comedic voice to play throughout. Still, when the comedic moment is just right, it makes for an incredibly enjoyable scene, and overall, most scenes had that. As for the way the film actually looks, it’s quite sharp. Often, it uses a handheld camera, which adds to the chaos of each scene incredibly well, while also immersing the audience in the world of these strange characters. That being said, the looks of the film also have inconsistencies, especially in color. I’m not saying every historically based film needs to have a set color pallet matching the tone of that era, but there should likely be an element of that, which Death of Stalin doesn’t have. To be fair, it does also make up for this with an incredibly Soviet-era soundtrack, making certain scenes even more comedic.
There’s nothing funny about what happened in Soviet Russia… or is there. The Death of Stalin is a very dark comedy that also shines light on the fact that these historical figures, who seem almost fictional nearly 100 years after their rein, are still human with plenty of flaws. It may have inconsistencies, but it is still an incredibly funny and enjoyable watch. 8.4/10
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