morrison-dylan-fan Channel surfing late one night,I came across a new Comedy show on the BBC by Alan Partridge creator Armando Iannucci.Knowing nothing about the series,I was left breathless by the lightning fast one liners being joined by a satirical edge which gave the comedy a dramatic bite.After the series, (which is now my third all time favourite TV show) got me interested in political and satirical Comedy,I was delighted to find a companion film which allowed Iannucci's creation to fire on all cylinders. Realising that I have just written my 999th IMDb review,I decided that I would mark my 29th birthday by writing my 1000th review for my 10th favourite film of all time.The plot:During a radio interview MP Simon Foster is asked if he believes that the government are planning a war in the Middle East.Going against his own party line,Foster says that he sees no chance of a war taking place.Arriving at party hq,Foster is surrounded by "Director of Communications"/spin Malcolm Tucker,who tells Foster to not go off track,and to walk the government line.Hearing Foster's comments,visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Karen Clark invites Foster to a meeting about fears of a secret committee in the US setting out plans for a war in the Middle East.Trying to stick to the government line,Foster soon finds his beliefs being invaded by Malcolm Tucker.View on the film:Toning down the rough edge,moc-doc style of the series,co- writer/(along with Jesse Armstrong/ Simon Blackwell/ Tony Roche & Ian Martin)director Armando Iannucci and cinematographer Jamie Cairney give the film a wonderful reserved gloss,with smoothly delivered whip- pans injecting a documentary intimacy within the movie,and also allowing the viewer to catch every crisp one liner.Going to the US, Iannucci and Cairney peel away any US landmarks with obscured side shots which match Foster's deflated response to his first US visit.Giving the film a timelessness by smartly not naming the parties or the Middle East country that "The West" is on a path to war with,the writers cover the title wall to wall with acid-tongue punchlines,as each of Malcolm Tucker's merciless verbal attacks destroy his opponent/ministers limb by limb.Hanging a cloud of war over the title,the writers hit the title with ruthless satirical fangs,as every side from the left,right & centre gets struck,as every cracking exchange exposes the characters being more concerned about keeping their spot safe than doing what is best for diplomacy.Entering the movie like a fire breathing dragon, Peter Capaldi gives a ferocious performance as Malcolm Tucker,whose every blood spilling line of dialogue Capaldi chews with a delicious relish. Joined by a stern James Gandolfini and a sweet Anna Chlumsky,Tom Holland (who played the PM in MI5!) gives a hilarious performance as Simon Foster,by making every frozen with fear stare that Foster makes over sharing the "wrong" opinion reveal how out of the loop Foster is.

popcorninhell In the 1960's there was a rather astute humorist by the name of Tom Lehrer who made a habit of lampooning the news of the day through quick-witted song. One of my favorites was one called Wernher von Braun, named after the Nazi engineer turned U.S. aerospace expert and director of the Marshall Space Flight Center for NASA. Von Braun's apolitical attitude towards his Nazi past led to one particularly biting lyric from Lehrer which was as follows, "once rockets are up, who cares where they come down, that's not my department says Wernher von Braun." Within that lyric lies the savage, dark and undeniable truth behind In the Loop, a movie so exact in it's satire that it might as well be a documentary.The U.S. and the U.K. are on the fast track to war with a never named Middle Eastern country (though given the timeline and consequences it's most certainly Iraq). As the governments of the two mighty nations prepare dockets, CIA testimonials, affidavits and the like, one British ministry head Simon Foster (Hollander) isn't towing the line. It is up to the foul-mouthed Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker (Capaldi) to keep him in line, lest he join Americans Assistant Secretary of State Karen Clarke and arm- chair General George Miller in creating a formidable inter- departmental dissent. Problem of course is Foster, or as staffers dub him Simon "Fluster" can't seem to make up his mind on the entire situation.In the Loop is largely based on the successful British TV political satire The Thick of It (2005-2012) which savagely lampooned the inter-workings of the British body politic. In the center of both the show and the film is the sharp and funny Peter Capaldi whose political maneuverings are outdone by his creative turn of phrases; "I will marshal all the forces of darkness to hound you into an assisted suicide" stands as probably his most tame quip. Otherwise he's on-screen bullying everyone in sight with choice four letter words.On the American side of the rigmarole is Liza Weld (Chlumsky) a staffer to the assistant secretary who wrote a working paper on the negative consequences of the war. Her paper makes the rounds around State Department and she finds her career is on the line when she realizes there are a few too many negatives. Luckily there's assistant secretary Linton Barwick (Rasche) who has a habit of redacting State Department materials before they're sent to the White House. Clarke on the other hand wants the information disseminated and doesn't care who is in the way to do it.Lest I make some of these characters sound heroic, they are not. Many act like Toby (Addison) a British staffer who only looks to further his career. It seems that many characters have stumbled onto an inconvenient truth on accident and are trying feverishly to cover their tracks. After all, the consequences of a war gone bad, is not on their shoulders but disagreeing with the White House and Downing Street respectively...they will single you out and drag your reputation through the mud.This amazingly sharp political satire is indeed not for everyone. Director Armando Iannucci (who also created The Thick of It and later Veep (2012) starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus) wanted everything to feel distinctively anti-West Wing (1999-2006). Instead of dramatic lighting and soaring musical accompaniment, most of the story is told with an almost Dogma '95 lack of style; the music almost none- existent and the lighting being supplied by florescent bulbs. Some audience members may find this in addition to the lack of camera dynamics to be unsatisfactory, especially if they're not interested in politics in any cursory sense.That said, In the Loop is one of the most ferocious political satires to come out of anywhere in a long time. The dialogue is gut- bustingly funny, the story is bleak yet joyous and the characters are petty, disloyal and superficial yet charming in a fully human way.

carbuff I almost always finish a movie once I start it, but I gave up on this after less than 30 minutes. I love witty, intellectual, satirical British stuff and that is what I was expecting, but for two specific reasons, I didn't stick around. The first is a very personal reason--I am certain that the unbelievably abusive and absurdly foul-mouthed British minister was inspired by our own lovely Rahm Emanuel, and even though politically I'm a bit on the left, I detest Emanuel. I couldn't bear to watch nearly 2 hours of anybody reminding me so much of him, even if it makes him look like the nasty, narcissistic, power-hungry jerk he is. (Yeah, I really, don't like him.) Second, the swearing in this film is ridiculous and distracting. Note how many people comment on this. I could care less about foul language---frankly, it doesn't bother me at all--but this script seem to be the product of a bunch of writers competing to see who could introduce the most expletives into the film, and, after they were done, they passed the script along for final polishing to an editor with Tourettes. I'm sure that there was some artistic point to this, or maybe they thought they were being sophisticated or realistic or I don't know what, but I just found it to be extraordinarily annoying. You're probably thinking that I'm a bit of a prude, so I feel obligated to point out that after I gave up on this, I watched an excellent British gangster film which was extremely liberal with foul language; however, in this case, it seemed completely appropriate contextually. I'm so used to extreme swearing that I hardly notice it, and I thought all of the other reviewers were probably just a bunch of uptight old women, until I listened to it myself. I would actually encourage people to start this movie, just to see if they agree that this bizarrely excessive foul-mouthed script plays as badly as I think it does and immensely detracts from the story they are trying to tell, or if I'm just not hip enough.

Matic Boh Although not as emphatic and cynical in its style, In the Loop does in many ways resemble Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Dr. Strangelove, as its creator Armando Iannucci manages to produce a refreshingly intelligent comedy, that explores the behaviour of American and British political bureaucrats during the Iraq war era, in a witty and often hilarious manner. While Iannucci's trademark mockumentary style of filming adds to the idea of authenticity of the events depicted, the film's outstanding feature is undoubtedly the terrific writing that is based on a very colorful language and presents the audience with great dialogue, as one is exposed to an abundance of sidesplitting one-liners. The film sadly losses some of its momentum towards the end, and the pace eventually begins to undermine the clever writing, yet In the Loop deserves to be recognized as one of the sharpest political satires made in recent years.