Rent The Wizard of the Kremlin (2025)

The Man Behind the Curtain - The Wizard of the Kremlin review by griggs

Turns out power is mostly television. Olivier Assayas’ adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s novel follows Vadim Baranov — Paul Dano, doing his quiet-unravelling thing, and doing it well — a TV producer who slides into becoming Putin’s image architect, only to find the image has consequences.

The film is at its best when it shows propaganda being built: the stagecraft, the myth-making, the careful control of what the camera sees. Where it struggles is in assuming proximity to history counts as insight into it. Lots of men in rooms making enormous decisions; some of it grips, some of it is just very expensive furniture.

Jude Law’s Putin has the stillness and blank menace, but the film is too busy admiring the monster to question him — treating him as a dark icon rather than something history, money and media helped create. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I admired the ideas more than I enjoyed the film: slick, intelligent, well-acted, and just bloodless enough. Everyone thinks they’re writing the script until they realise they’re only a character in someone else’s.

Based-on-true-events Biopic of Putin & his Rise to Ruler of Russia as the New Tsar, 4 stars - The Wizard of the Kremlin review by PV

This film is from a novel, though the odd disclaimer at the start that the characters are fictitious is fooling no-one, not when one is even called Vladimir Putin. Boris

Yes , it's bitty. But Jude Law is great as Putin and Paul Dano is always worth a watch.

Reminds of me other shy dramas, THE AMERICANS TV series, also DEUSTCHLAND 83, with its depiction of the communist regime. A great but forgotten UK TV drama RED MONARCH from 1983 is way superior to the later The Death of Stalin (2017) which I found annoying. McMafia a UK TV drama from 2018 nails the Russians in London mired in corruption and with enemies angle well. Boris Berezovsky's life and dodgy death could provide more than enough material for a feature film in itself!

I visited the USSR during communism so know a lot of the places featured in Moscow and Leningrad, as was. They use real documentary/news footage here for various events, sometimes altered by AI to add Jude Law's face. I expect we'll be seeing a lot more of that kind of thing, and have, in fake news online, which means people believe nothing any more.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, though I'd say that if you lack knowledge of the news esp re Russia n 1980s/90s/2000s and Putin, you may find it confusing at times. For those who know about recent Russian history, this is a useful addition to the genre. 4 stars