Review of In the Loop (2009) by Maksim B — 06 Feb 2011

In The Loop is the funniest, craziest and probably the best political & war satire for years. With brutal, cunning and shameless dialogues you would be giggling, laughing and finally asking yourself isn't this the real political life. The story and everything happening is so absurd an somehow realistic, that in the end you truly end up with the feeling that this is a sort of documentary, rather than a crazy political satire.

The story goes over the US-UK relationships before the "pre -Iraq War" period and how the pros and the cons for an invasion struggled to get their agendas approved. With stylish British humor, extremely fast paced story-telling and ludicrous dialogues we are exposed to the "behind-the-scene" of politics, where personal interests and lobbying determine the policy-making of nowadays.

You might feel the guilty pleasure of enjoying the ugliest and the filthiest English, spoken by political advisers, media analysts and ministers and even enlarge your vocabulary of "filth-splashing-phrases". And surprisingly, they are all said in the most realistic and natural way, almost assuming that they are part of the modern political life behind the cameras and the microphones.

What really, comes short in this movie, is the weaker cast which at some point fails to match the outstanding script and the brilliant direction of Armando Iannucci. Peter Capaldi, though, is an outstanding with his memorable, aggressive and verbally violent performance. All the filth coming out of his mouth is presented in a smooth and chic verbal "blitzkrieg" towards his opponents!

A movie to truly enjoy, especially if you are fan of quality media and political satire.