The expression “show, don’t tell” is an expression that Olivier Assayas’ The Wizard of the Kremlin could've listened to. After an introduction that essentially states that this is a work of fiction, in particular, that its lead, Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano), is an original creation, an almost wiser Forrest Gump-esque character through the last 30 years of Russian history, the film proceeds to exhaustingly explain itself for over two and a half hours. For Assayas, who has proven time and again that he can do large-scale storytelling well in projects like Carlos and 2022’s television adaptation of his own Irma Vep, The Wizards of the Kremlin sees the director and co-writer (along with Emmanuel Carrère) rushing through a staggering amount of information to the point that this becomes more of a blunt rundown of recent Russian history instead of a captivating drama.
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