Would be better as a theatre play

Rating: 5/10 (20 January 2019)

"The Death of Stalin" is a story of betrayal and treason within the communist party after Stalin's death. There's lots of deadpan dialogue and hilarious situational humor.
My problem with this movie is that it LOOKS exceptionally boring. Yes, I get it: When one has such an impressive cast to boast, it makes sense to highlight the actors' faces, especially in a movie that is focused on the interaction between different people. The movie is extremely dialogue-heavy... which ultimately means that the creators missed out on an opportunity to tell a story with images. I honestly disrespect movies that could've just as well been a stage theatre play. Why not use what the medium of film has to offer?
Besides the genuinely uninteresting cinematography, the whole thing felt contrived, which prevented me from being moved by the movie. Also, since all the characters are equally ridiculous, I didn't have any main protagonist to latch my feelings onto. To some extent I just didn't care what happened to the people in the movie. This lack of a genuine emotional connection could've been repaired by some deep message about communism, or some commentary on the nature of human life in dictatorships-but there was none of that either.
So all in all, I felt that this movie was rather pointless, notwithstanding the amazing acting that is to be applauded.