The Death Of Stalin

There's more political comedy from Aramando Ianucci, who has give us HBO's The Veep and In the Loop, with The Death Of Stalin (2017). This film can be singled out for its black comedy-what other type can there be about the 1953 death of Joseph Stalin and the fallout that followed. Another aspect of the comedy that I found somewhat jarring was that actors, from America and England, were speaking English in their own accents without Russian accents. Thus, for example Nikita Krushchev (Steve Buscemi) has a New York accent and his main rival Lavrenti Beria (an impressive Simon Russell Beale) has an English accent. There's an excellent ensemble cast that helps drive the farce with the likes of  Michael Palin, Jeffrey Tambor, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, and Jason Isaacs among others. In the chaos that follows Stalin's death and the scrambling of his council to come to terms with a new government take place in the context of a new series of lists of enemies of state and former enemies being pardoned and released from prison and several grisly action take place in the background as summary executions and torture takes place in the midst of the action. It is another winning, if not darker, political comedy from Ianucci.