It's good if you don't mind really dark political humor, based on actual tragedy.

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2018)

'THE DEATH OF STALIN': Four Stars (Out of Five)
A historical political satire about the Soviet power struggles that arose from the death of Stalin. It's based on the French graphic novel 'La mort de Staline', by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin. It was directed by Armando Iannucci, and it was scripted by Iannucci, David Schneider, Ian Martin and Peter Fellows. The film stars Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Michael Palin, Paddy Considine, Olga Kurylenko and Adrian McLoughlin. It's gotten almost unanimously positive reviews from critics, and it's playing in indie theaters now. I found it to be really witty and always interesting, it's also definitely dark and disturbing though.
The story takes place in 1953 Moscow, when Joseph Stalin (McLoughlin) has a brain hemorrhage and collapses. The members of the Central Committee all panic, and become divided on what should be done about it. Some, including the chief of police Lavrentiy Beria (Beale), devise plans on how they can benefit from the loss of leadership. The entire movie is played out in an extremely satirical way, with lots of comical political commentary.
The film is definitely always amusing, and pretty funny. The cast is all brilliant in their performances, and of course the script is extremely witty and clever. I also learned a great deal about that particular time in history, although I've read that the film is filled with inaccuracies about it. It's also an extremely horrific and dark subject matter obviously, so it does seem odd to play it out in such a seemingly lighthearted comedic way. If you don't mind really dark political humor, that's based on actual historical tragedy, you should probably enjoy it.