Die, Stalin, Die!

Yesterday, The Death of Stalin showed up in the suggested items on Netflix, and it's great. A peek through the old Iron Curtain, this movie pulls down that dirty underwear, exposing the bare comic darkness and horrific nature of the old Soviet Union. Promises of power evade all logic and morality, allowing fetid, wicked lusts to run amok in the very people assigned to remove that greedy element.

Of course, as we learn, no benevolence was ever really intended. The 'leaders' of the proletariat make the old bourgeois look like saints with their raping, murdering and theft. The only thing to stop them, as with all demoniacs, is the lack of honor among thieves.

There are no sympathetic characters. Steve Buscemi's unexpected Nikita Khrushchev, although entertaining, is terrifying in a completely random way. Finding a character with whom to identify is almost impossible. Sympathy for Stalin's now-fatherless daughter isn't even easy.

Chaos and fear rule the day. All the greedy hands are reaching. Some of them will get cut off.