With all the institutional chaos in the world, I'd like to recommend Death Of Stalin for some clarity

I don't know if I can call a movie this dark "comfort media", but personally I find something really healing in the lessons this movie brings, namely that even at the topmost levels of the organizations and governments that intrude on our lives every day, no one knows what the fuck is going on. There are no Bond villains, no all-knowing spymasters. Just fat bureaucrats with lousy haircuts, using people's lives as ammo in a bitter and pointless struggle to get a new placard, a bigger grave.

It's an Armando Ianucci film, the guy behind Veep, Thick of It, and In The Loop, and it's got plenty of his style. People will quibble about the history - personally I think it's a comedy first and a history lesson a distant second. Soviet Russia is really just a backdrop for the same dark snafu comedy that Ianucci has placed in the White House or Westminster, except maybe with more executions. If you like incredible actors in poorly tailored suits running places and swearing at each other, you can't do better.

In the age of Russian oligarchs plummeting from windows almost daily, it may provide a little context, however humorous, for how being in the orbit of supreme authority also puts a target on your back. Death of Stalin's cast are only a few generations behind us (1952 really wasn't THAT long ago), and today's oligarchs have inherited their games. Today you're an asset to the party, tomorrow you're on someone's list. DoS is wise to remind us that fascism is a bloodbath for proles and bougoisie alike.

Anyway, it's also just fucking funny. Turns out Nikita Kruschev was the role Steve Buscemi was born to play, and Simon Russel Beale should be commended for turning Lavrenti Berria into one of the most detestable screen characters in years. I recommend it you want a laugh, a decent historical lesson, and perhaps a little credit for us here in the US where things are shitty, but at least our leaders aren't killing each other (yet).

submitted by /u/Wazula42
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