In the Loop
by Armando Iannucci
(IFC)
There have been a slew of movies created this decade with the backdrop of the Iraq war, but most have failed miserably. It seems British director/writer Armando Iannucci may have finally found the right formula.
In the brilliantly witty “In the Loop,” Peter Capaldi (“The Thick of It”) plays a British government PR man who never met a swear word he couldn’t reel of to his subordinates. When a fellow government member lets slip in an interview that a U.S. invasion of the Middle East is “unforeseeable” a chain of events to save face and keep all war option open begins. The duo – toadies right behind them – jets off to Washington, D.C., to help patch up the situation, but quickly become entangled in politics involving inept military advisors, backstabbing bureaucrats and a peace-loving general played expertly by James Gandolfini.
You have to go as far back as “Wag the Dog” to find political satire this sharp and witty in a comedy; it is fantastic all the way through.