Sunday, April 22, 2018

Contact in Red Square

I dunno, I expected Death of Stalin to be funnier.

My thought process on that is because it was from Armando Iannucci, the guy behind Veep. To be fair, Iannucci adapted it from a graphic novel.

And it's harder to make Stalin and the aftermath from the gulag to be yuck-yuck funny.  If it wasn't implied I'll say it now: it's a black comedy.

I have to say, the theater was packed.  I don't think there were three free seats - though it was a smaller venue. I was more surprised because the movie has been out here for well over a month. I didn't think anyone would be there at all.  Colour me surprised.

Love seeing Steve Buscemi in a role where he's not completely creepy - and add to that he's playing Krushchev!  He was great. I didn't even recognize Michael Palin. Jason Issacs (Lucius Malfoy), was perfect in his role. What can I say, Jeffrey Tambor was Jeffrey Tambor. Meh.

The story mixes fact and fiction. While you don't need to know the ins and outs of Russian history, it probably helps to know some of it. And yes, you can compare some of the lines to today's political experience here in the U.S.......and with Putin

There were times / lines / looks / actions in the movie that had a lot of the audience laugh - myself included. I just was expecting more - even though there was a funny running urine gag.  I enjoyed the movie. I didn't love. it.

That said, given the chance to watch it again (hello, HBO), I'm guessing I would.



2018 Movie Count / Goal:  07 of 12


Song by: Blondie

1 comment:

Raybeard said...

I'm completely at one with you on this, B. Throughout the film I was waiting for the opportunity to let out a big laugh, which never really came. I also thought Jason Isaacs was possibly the highlight in a film, seen by me almost exactly six months ago (maybe it took that long to cross the Atlantic - via Australia, perhaps?) Like you too, would I see it again? Probably - to try to find what I missed first time round.