I have to admit that I'm not the biggest history buff, so some of the comedy just might have flown right over my head, but even then, I laughed early and often in this amusingly odd farce. As I was watching it, however, I wondered if I'd laugh harder and more frequently if I was in on the film's historical background. It turns out that I probably would have. The astounding thing about this film is that it's steeped in reality. The actual story around the death of Joseph Stalin was so outlandish that the film even had to dilute history a bit (there was actually a third conductor that had to be brought in for the re-recording of the symphony).

The film is very upfront with its silliness, completely abandoning the facade of actor's donning false Russian accents, which can be a bit jarring, but allows the comedy to breathe. Iannucci discussed this decision in a recent interview: “I felt Russian accents would just kill the comedy dead. It makes the whole thing artificial. It makes you feel like you’re not there. And I want people to feel like they’re there.”