Funny, but tonally muddled and jarring

Rating: 6/10 (7 October 2018)

Moscow, 1953. After being in power for nearly 30 years, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin takes ill and quickly dies. Now the members of the Council of Ministers scramble for power. At the forefront of the machinations is NKVD chief Lavrenti Beria, after Stalin the most feared man in the USSR. Council member Nikita Khrushchev does his best to maintain order and thwart Beria's plans.
Written and directed by Armando Iannucci, who gave us the brilliant political satires 'The Thick of It', 'In the Loop' and 'Veep' this movie has Iannucci's trademark political intrigue combined with satirical humour. Very funny at times.
However, while the drama and the comedy of his previous efforts meshed perfectly together, largely because the comedy was making fun of the drama, here it doesn't work well. The drama - mass executions, torture, a callous disregard for life - is at odds with the comedy. It becomes difficult to laugh at the antics of the Russian ministers when just a second previously you saw someone executed at their whim.
It would have worked better as a straight drama, showing the fall-out of Stalin's death. Making this a straight comedy would have been impossible.
Overall: watchable, for the comedy moments.