I saw "The Death of Stalin" last night. [View all]

[NNadir]

Being familiar with the history of this event, and kind of curious about it since I couldn't imagine how someone could rearrange the end of the horror of Stalinism into a comedy I went to see the movie The Death of Stalin last night by myself, as both my wife and my son at home are working like crazy on their intellectual pursuits.

I couldn't imagine I would laugh, but laugh I did. It was hysterically absurd.

Steve Buscemi, playing Khruschev - who in real life was actually a crude and uneducated, if highly intelligent man - steals the show. He plays Khruschev sort of the way he played the Carl Showalter in Fargo, although also adding a level of something quite different.

I have always hated the real life Beria, a rapist, torturer and murderer, and Simon Beale does a pretty good job portraying this awful man, although his physical resemblance is not quite that strong to the real Beria, who had a thin and almost intellectual look, although he was one of history's greatest beasts.

Michael Palin is wonderful as Molotov as well.

If you are interested at all in the tawdry history of Stalinism, as well as possessed of a somewhat offbeat sense of humor, don't miss it.