What?

Rating: 2/10 (10 February 2019)

The Death of Stalin features several great actors, a writer-director whose credits include Alan Partridge, and legendary Monty Pythonite/world-traveler Michael Palin. It's difficult to see how this could go wrong, but it certainly did. I'm genuinely baffled by the reception of this film which has received awards, nominations, and a 7.2 rating on imdb. Quite frankly, this is a train-wreck - as a comedy it's painfully unfunny, as a serious depiction of political intrigue in the aftermath of Stalin's death/murder it falls completely on its face. The editing and camerawork works against the comedic timing, while the actors struggle with lines that are lost in a limbo between crazy comedy and dead seriousness. The scenes seem to follow each other randomly. It pains me to say it, because I think The Death of the Stalin had everything going for it, including a fascinating subject matter, but for me, this is bound to be THE movie-watching disappointment of 2019.