Close call if this is good or not

Rating: 6/10 (30 March 2018)

"The Death of Stalin" is a co-production between no less than 4 countries that resulted in this new English-language movie that runs for 105 minutes. Well, it is new here as it just hit cinemas in Germany a day ago before I am writing this review. The film was nominated for 2 BAFTAs not too long ago and it is the most recent work by Oscar-nominated Scottish writer Armando Iannucci, who is known for Veep mostly of course (and the comedy at the series' and this film's core is simple about very incompetent people trying to ooze competence) and for his Oscar-nominated work "In the Loop". Now as for this one here: the title sounds fairly serious, but if you read the name Iannucci and know a bit about him, you will understand fairly quickly that the comedy genre is dominant in here. Still the dark humor lets them get away with some more serious stuff too when it comes to intrigue, cold-blooded murder even and of course actual historic events. There is much more in here than just the comedically entertaining perspective. With Buscemi and Tambor on board, they have two actors that I like quite a bit and I think they are doing a pretty great job, actually everybody here, not just these two, also some who I have not really been familiar with at all so far or just vaguely. The ensemble is perhaps the film's best component. Sets and costumes are decent too I'd say overall. And as a consequence I do believe that the film offers more positive than negative eventually. Still, there are glaring weaknesses too. It has more than just a few scenes and moments when it feels as if there is really weak focus and the movie could have been at least 15 minutes shorter if we take out all the sub-par material. And honestly, the fact that there are hilarious scenes should not make us ignore the fact that the balance between entertaining and informative is working pretty badly on some occasions. Yet the moments when they run for who gets to hug the daughter first almost manage to have us ignore that fact. And then there is the acting of course. I mentioned it before, but I definitely think that the cast makes some of the weak material look fairly strong surprisingly thanks to their individual talents.
What else? Oh yeah. I would like to say that I am happy for Tambor here he is in a movie that has become quite a success really with everything going against him. Accusations and allegations without fundamental proof or eveidence should not keep us from enjoying his art and boy is he an artist. He shows it again here being part of many of the film's funniest moments. Thanks Jeffrey. Enough with that now though. I think this is certainly on a better level than Veep overall, which at some point just turned into unfunny try-hard anti-conservative propaganda, but today we shall not talk any further in detail about the JLD show. This movie we got here is almost never boring and very frequently hits the nail right on the head at least for me. I do think though that the comedy is not for everybody, so if you won't enjoy the approach in the first 15-20 minutes, you can probably switch it off because not too much is gonna change to be honest afterward in terms of style and atmosphere. For me it is a close call if I should give the film a thumbs-up and positive recommendation or a thumbs-down and negative recommendation, but Iannucci and his many writers here nail the comedic parts well enough for me to go for the former and actually the ending wasn't too bad either, so I will be generous and think that you can give this film a chance. It is not one of the best comedies, let alone films, of the year, but it is worth seeing if you like some of the actors here as much as I do. Go give it a chance, but don't expect Hitler in here or Cold War conflicts as this is really all about the Soviets and their power struggles. A subject complex enough for sure.