The Death of Stalin
IFC Films | Release Date: March 9, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
43
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJan 10, 2019
As The Death of Stalin goes on, its cleverness withers into something more wearying. Read full review
86
The AtlanticChristopher OrrApr 10, 2018
The result is a comedy so black that it recalls the words of the immortal Nigel Tufnel: It could be “none more black.” Read full review
91
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 5, 2018
The Death of Stalin is explicit content music to the ears of comedy buffs, a torrent of gutter wordsmithery unleashed by a bawdy ensemble. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 22, 2018
Lots of movies mix comedy and horror. But Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin makes real-life horrors the source of hilarity — and it is hilarious — while never making light of the insanity that inspired it. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonMar 22, 2018
Although the film is frequently brilliant, it’s not quite as clever as it thinks it is. The cast, however, is terrific. Particularly good is Buscemi, who’s engagingly cranky as Khrushchev. Read full review
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 22, 2018
I keep finding myself wanting to compare it to 1964's "Dr. Strangelove," Stanley Kubrick's Cold War comic masterpiece -- which, as any movie buff will tell you, is exceptionally high praise. In this case, it's also warranted. Read full review
88
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonMar 22, 2018
For Iannucci, who loves to mock the craven, unprincipled pursuit of power, the scenario is an antic delight and plays to his talent for hectic plot turns and (pardon the expression) rapid-fire dialogue. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 16, 2018
The central conceit of The Death of Stalin is that what is funny is not always just funny. In this sense, the film is closer in spirit to “Dr. Strangelove” than, say Mel Brooks’s “The Producers.” The latter was a jape; the former was a cautionary howl. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 16, 2018
This is one of those films where the comedy prefers to accentuate characters’ deficiencies than pursue slapstick. Because of this, Buscemi, Palin, Tambor, and a deliciously pompous and over-the-top Jason Isaacs (as Field Marshal Zhukov) shine. Read full review
89
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpMar 16, 2018
It takes a deft hand and a rare talent to make tyranny and state sanctioned torture so funny. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 15, 2018
From start to finish, director/co-writer Armando Iannucci (creator of HBO’s brilliant “Veep”) delivers an audacious and insightful and ridiculous and hilarious send-up that reminded me of the classic Monty Python films of the 1970s and 1980s. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 15, 2018
Mordant in the extreme, and often hilarious, The Death of Stalin somehow manages to acknowledge the murderous depths of Josef Stalin’s regime while rising to the level of incisive, even invigorating political satire. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 14, 2018
Buscemi is magnificent, but all the players rise to the occasion; you may especially cherish Rupert Friend (“Homeland”) as Stalin’s demented alcoholic son Vasily and Olga Kurylenko (“Quantum of Solace”) as pianist Maria Yudina, the film’s elegant and only note of genuine conscience. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMar 14, 2018
For all the pratfalls, this is a grim, dispiriting work. It dares not to be liked, and there’s a lot to like in that daringness. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 14, 2018
A unique and hilarious British comedy. Read full review
75
Washington PostChristopher KompanekMar 14, 2018
While Iannucci whips up a fever-pitch frenzy, his film, based on a 2017 graphic novel, is not a farce, but a tragicomedy. The dark elements are too corrosive to be tempered by laughter. Read full review
90
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 12, 2018
Every gag is girded with fear. The humor is so black that it might have been pumped out of the ground. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleMar 10, 2018
The Death of Stalin may be both Iannucci’s darkest and most timely satire yet. More than anything he’s done before, Iannucci has narrowed the distance between slapstick and savagery, prompting us to contemplate — even as we’re cackling — their uncomfortable proximity. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMar 9, 2018
Yes, The Death of Stalin is a kind of farce, but it’s a mordant one. It never asks us to laugh at cruelty; it does make us laugh at the absurd pettiness and ultimate small-mindedness of the men perpetrating that cruelty. And Iannucci is a superb ringmaster. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 9, 2018
The first great movie of the year. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 8, 2018
Armando Iannucci’s absurdist comedy reveals this in an extremely loose manner of speaking, with malice aforethought, straight-faced glee and formidable sharpshooting that occasionally misfires. It isn’t history but free-range fiction, a venomous farce containing nuggets of fact, and if its subjects bear any resemblance to present-day dictators and authoritarian mugs or thugs around the world, then the movie has hit its archetypal target. Read full review
100
Consequence of SoundBlake GobleMar 8, 2018
The script feels like a great writers-room comedy, where only the leanest and meanest bits stay, and the most startling and intriguing ideas persist. It functions comedically and historically — the jokes have something to say about power. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 8, 2018
As in the most unnerving satires, the glibness adds to the horror. Even the most absurd deaths have a sting. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMar 8, 2018
Despite the rich settings and crowded cast, the film can’t help feeling a little airless too: These players aren’t history’s masterminds, they’re wasps trapped in a jar, bumbling against the glass in sting-or-be-stung chaos. Read full review
100
Village VoiceBilge EbiriMar 8, 2018
The Death of Stalin would be a brilliant, harrowing film even without all that contemporary resonance. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 8, 2018
The Death of Stalin is by turns entertaining and unsettling, with laughs that morph into gasps and uneasy gasps that erupt into queasy, choking laughs. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMar 8, 2018
Iannucci's take-no-prisoners directorial style is perfect for this blackest of farces. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 7, 2018
Who'd have thought the demise of a kill-happy Russian dictator could leave you laughing helplessly? That's The Death of Stalin for you, a slapstick tragedy – and for the funniest, fiercest comedy of the year so far – from the fertile mind of Armando Iannucci, the British political satirist behind the HBO's Veep and the sensational, Strangelovian In the Loop (2009). Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMar 6, 2018
The situational humor is more varied than in In The Loop, even if it still largely comes down to a lot of people badgering each other in hallways, offices, and banquet halls. But the dialogue lacks the earlier film’s vicious, creative, lighting-fast profanity. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJake ColeMar 5, 2018
Armando Iannucci satirizes the manner in which political power is accorded to those who can mask cutthroat ambition behind an outward projection of bland inoffensiveness. Read full review
100
EmpireNick de Semlyen
Iannucci’s brand of political satire is applied to one of the darkest chapters in modern history, with sensational results. The Lives Of Others with laughs, it’s farcical, frightening and a timely reminder that things could always be worse. Read full review
100
Time Out LondonPhil de Semlyen
Like Orwell on helium, this reimagining of Stalin’s demise and the subsequent ideological gymnastics of his scheming acolytes is daring, quick-fire and appallingly funny. Read full review
80
Total FilmJordan Farley
The Death of Stalin review: "A frighteningly funny satire that finds humour in historical horror" Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd
The Death Of Stalin isn’t quite as pointed or rat-a-tat funny as In The Loop (or Veep at its best), but its application of [Iannucci's] signature barbed comic voice to such grim history (executions are a constant source of gallows humor) packs its own punch. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
The Death Of Stalin is superbly cast, and acted with icy and ruthless force by an A-list lineup. There are no weak links. Each has a plum role; each squeezes every gorgeous horrible drop. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
Though not as stuffed with rapid-fire laughs as In the Loop...this makes a very fine sophomore outing. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric Kohn
It’s “Veep” in the Soviet Union, a welcome expansion of Iannucci’s canvas that keeps his savage comedy intact. Read full review
83
The PlaylistKevin Jagernauth
The Death Of Stalin is a grim reminder that we are never too far away from history turning back on progress. It’s not an easy lesson to reconcile, but Iannucci at least has us laughing for a good while before delivering his devastating blow. Read full review
67
The Film StageDaniel Schindel
This may be Iannucci’s weakest-written film, but it’s by far his best-directed one. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim Grierson
The novelty of his volcanically vulgar, deeply cynical tone may have worn off some, but Iannucci has nonetheless crafted another poisonous cocktail of naked ambition and blustery bravado with a decidedly bitter aftertaste. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter Debruge
Though sporadically brilliant, this too-often uneven send-up of Russian politics attempts to maintain the rapid-fire, semi-improvisational style of Iannucci’s earlier work...while situating such madness within an elaborately costumed and production-designed period milieu. Read full review
90
VoxAlissa Wilkinson
The Death of Stalin is Iannucci’s most complex and almost nihilistic rendering of what politics is: A team of bumbling and weak-minded people who lack any real conviction other than a desire for power and position. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate Taylor
There is one thing that power can’t stand, and that is to be mocked: The social importance of this topical romp should not be underestimated. Read full review
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