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The loudest reaction during both press screenings of Olivier Assayas\u2019s<\/span> The Wizard of the Kremlin\u00a0<\/i>at the Venice Film Festival happened before the film even began, as the Disney+ ident surprisingly popped up after your regular procession of European broadcasters and production companies. While the association of the major American studio with this particular film is yet to be divulged, what is clear is the dissonance between the home of Mickey Mouse and this satire about the Russian autocracy starring Jude Law as Vladimir Putin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If an almost three-hour is-it-spoof-is-it-not directed by a\u00a0French auteur featuring a\u00a0handsome Brit as the infamous Russian autocrat sounds a\u00a0bit odd, just wait until you see it. Adapted from Giuliano da Empoli\u2019s eponymous novel,\u00a0<\/span>The Wizard of the Kremlin\u00a0<\/i>is fashioned as a\u00a0biopic for Paul Dano\u2019s Vadim Baranov, a\u00a0successful TV<\/span> producer, lover of all things art and Tupac Shakur fan who ends up as the unlikely advisor to Putin during the early days of his meteoric political career. (Baranov is fictional, but there are noted similarities between him and the very real Russian politician Vladislav Surkov.)<\/span><\/p>\n We are ushered into this strange beast through the soothing voice of Jeffrey Wright\u2019s narrator, an academic fascinated with Russian sociopolitics whose work earns him a\u00a0rare invitation into Baranov\u2019s isolated estate. His visit works as a\u00a0nifty narrative device to walk us through the life of the mysterious kingmaker, from his cushy childhood as the son of a\u00a0civil servant in Communist Russia, to the way that the freedom that came with the fall of the r\u00e9gime fuelled his burning creative urges, and then his early days as a\u00a0television producer in a\u00a0burgeoning private network owned by oligarch Boris Berezovski (Will\u00a0Keen).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is Berezovski who plucks the young and hungry producer from the loudly brash realm of television and into the quietly brash realm of politics, properly kicking off Assayas\u2019s study of power as the driving force of modern Russia. Split into eight chapters, the film hammers this binary of the West as fixated on money and the East on sovereignty as if a\u00a0recently discovered thesis, and, like a\u00a0theatre undergrad first hearing about Chekov, this rapidly becomes grating.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What\u00a0<\/span>The Wizard of the Kremlin\u00a0<\/i>does have up its sleeve, however, is a\u00a0welcome self-awareness of the ludicrousness of its existence, particularly when it comes to Law\u2019s Putin. The English actor does away with the need for a\u00a0pantomime accent or overt mannerisms in favour of leaning headfirst into this concoction that is not as much meant to represent the Russian president as Jude Law\u2019s version of it. The result is a\u00a0mesmerising amalgamation that fittingly lends itself to this idea of a\u00a0dictator moulded and welcomed by the hands of pop culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Coming fast in the opposite lane is Dano\u2019s Baranov, a\u00a0performance coloured by the nagging self-consciousness of its performer. The overstretched early chapters portraying the spin doctor\u2019s youth bring with them a\u00a0laugh-out-loud attempt to pass off 41<\/span>-year-old Dano for a\u00a020<\/span>-year-old, his beaming eyes trying to capture the wonder of seeing lesbians make out in a\u00a0dirty toilet and men being guided by leather leashes in a\u00a0cracking all-night party that epitomises the wildness of the new Russian youth. What follows never quite improves on the silliness of what precedes, but finds rare moments of inspiration when Dano sits across from Wright in the now, the clarity of acquired wisdom much more suitable to the natural sternness of the American actor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As it stumbles towards its predictable final scene,\u00a0<\/span>The Wizard of the Kremlin\u00a0<\/i>fully abandons its attempt at riotous farce to try grasping at the sombre reality of the present. It is a\u00a0commendable endeavour, but also one that completely misunderstands where the treasure chest of its premise lies, maddeningly pulling away from the welcome provocation of the absurd to add yet another desperate scream to the torturous echo chamber we are all currently trapped in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nGet more Little White\u00a0Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n