QUIT STALIN

Rating: 7/10 (23 March 2018)

The death of a ruthless dictator is often followed by total chaos, usually not of the funny variety. Except here. Here it's quite funny.
Too early? Shouldn't be after all this was 1953, but the atrocities of the Soviet state were indeed, quite brutal. Thus the fine line balancing act begins. Armando Iannucci has bitten deep into political farce with Veep, The Thick of It, and In The Loop, but this is on another level altogether.
As the masses are being rounded up and flippantly disposed of, the heads of state quibble nonsensically over tedious issues whilst plotting their personal power trips. Portraying eventual successor (spoiler) Nikita Krushev, Steve Buscemi is fabulously frazzled and slyly devious, but it is the truly vitriolic performance of Simon Russell Beale as the vile Lavrentiy Beria that steals the show. It's not easy to dip below the slimy levels of Stalin's henchmen, but Beale accomplishes the creepy feat with Shakespearian vigour. Too bad not all of the cast, especially the usually adept Jeffrey Tambor, can't keep up.
To the film's credit, the great purge is not a mere backdrop to the Marx Brothers style frivolity, but a harsh companion. Torture and executions mix with all the bumbling. Risky, and perhaps the reason for steering the comedy away from physical to verbal. A bit of an unfilled tease with Monty Pythoner Michael Palin along for the ride, but so be it.
Bet Vladimir Putin's not in any hurry to catch this one.