The Death of Stalin

“He’s dead, and the backstabbing has just begun.”

Moscow, March 1953, and Stalin is dead, which leaves the Politburo with a funeral to stage and a country to run. Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) and the secret police chief Lavrenti Beria (Simon Russell Beale) each start working the room, with the weak-willed Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) as the prize. Armando Iannucci lets the men talk over one another, and Khrushchev keeps smiling while he counts who is with him.