Movie 40: In The Loop

A minor British cabinet minister makes a slip up in an interview and comes across as pro war. His comments cause an escalation on both sides of the pond towards a war stance (its not clear if this is Iraq or an imaginary war) and he finds himself caught in the middle of both sides.

That’s a rough plot description as its hard to synops…synopsis…condense. The plot doesn’t matter too much as this is a big chunk of political satire of both the UK and the US governments. And by big chunk I mean big as the original cut was 4.5 hours, though the theatrical is just under 2.

The two countries to satire a wee bit differently, but not that much. In the US you have The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher and Fox News. In the UK we’ve got Mock The Week, 8 Out of Ten Cats, Have I Got News for You and in the past Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister, The Day Today and Spitting Image. All worth looking up for clips. This is more in the vein of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister but with a shit load more swearing.

Director and one of the writers Armando Iannucci has been a staple of UK comedy, including the afore mentioned The Day Today. He’s been involved in some great comedy over the years and this is nothing different as its funny as hell. Mainly due to the fact that everyone just insults the hell out of everyone else, with one, well two, big standouts.

Peter Capaldi’s Malcolm Tucker works for the press office and he’s a civil servant. He’s also a sweary sweary bastard. And his counter part, the angriest man in Scotland (though they’re both Scottish and Malcolm is much more angry) Jamie Macdonald is pretty much as bad. And they’re pretty damned quotable. You know the Gunnery Sergeant scene in Full Metal Jacket? That for an hour and a half. I’ll save the bother of quoting anything and you can just read the whole quote section on IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226774/quotes

Or just watch the movie. The two of them are hilarious. And the rest of the cast do a damned fine job too.

This looks a bit like the office, as its people working in offices and is shot with hand helds. And frankly I think HBO or someone, The Will Be Swears, should develop a political office type show spanning both sides of the pond as it would be HUGE if the quality lived up to this movie.

Go watch, or I’ll hole punch your face.

Next up: How To Lose Friends And Alienate People