A Great Political Satire

Rating: 8/10 (18 March 2018)

Armando Iannucci has a knack for scathing political satire, which he shows once again with his take on Stalinist Russia. He captures the chaos and political back-stabbing around Stalin's death very well which makes for some great wordplay and gallows humour.
The direction and cinematography was very assured whilst the performances from the ensemble were excellent. All the actors were speaking with their normal accents which was actually not off-putting like I thought it was going to be. Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale and Jason Isaacs were the stand-outs for me.
The most enjoyable aspects were the hilarious critiques of Stalin's regime (e.g the purging of all the most accomplished doctors, the mass arrests etc...) and the power struggle that emerged between Stalin's closest allies. I would like to see Iannucci take this sort of concept for other historical dictatorships like Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany as this was very accomplished.