Very funny

Rating: 9/10 (8 May 2018)

Following the death of Soviet Chairman (and effective dictator) Josef Stalin in 1953, there is a frenzied jockeying for position among the surviving senior party members.
This film, which I had never heard of until a week or two ago, was not high on my list of must-see movies. I'm not particularly interested in the Russian revolution and its aftermath, and the title alone is enough to put me off - serious, drab, dreary and boring. I only went to see it because of the phenomenal cast.
And I'm so glad I did. Adapted from a French comic (!), and directed and co-scripted by British satirist Armando Ianucci, this film seems to follow the main beats of what actually happened, but is very, very funny.
The characterisations are brilliant - even the murderous individuals are drawn in widely comic terms - and the actors playing them have great fun. Jason Isaacs plays the head of the Russian army in a medal-heavy tunic, and with a broad and foul-mouthed Yorkshire accent - "Who locked the soldiers up?" Michael Palin and Jeffrey Tambor play Molotov and Malenkov as hardline party members who sway like reeds in the wind to stay within perceived safe guidelines. Steve Buscemi plays Krushchev as endlessly frustrated at being outmanoeuvred by the Machiavellian Beria.
This is nothing like the film I expected it to be, and I enjoyed it enormously.