In the Loop (2009)

Yay political satire. Spun off from his series The Thick of It, Armando Iannucci's In the Loop gives insight into the power struggles and miscommunication running rampant through the government agencies of Britain and America. After Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), the bumbling Minister for International Development, mistakenly calls war in the Middle East "unforseeable", it sparks a crazy stir between American officials who want war and those who don't, both hoping to use Foster as a poster boy for the UK's support of their side.

He travels to DC with new aide Toby (Chris Addison), and is partnered with the anti-war Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy), whose actual job I forget, who wants to infiltrate a secret war committee headed by the intimidating Linton Barwick (David Rasche), whose actual job I also forget. There's a lot more characters, a lot of traveling, a lot of arguing, and a lot of talking, Also, swearing. James Gandolfini shows up for a while as an anti-war general, Steve Coogan has a silly cameo, and by the end Foster's asshole boss Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) has to take matters into his own hands.

Ok so the plot of this movie is unimportant. It's basically like "some people want war, some people don't, and everyone likes to take advantage of Simon Foster because he's clueless". What is important here is the amazing, hilarious dialogue packed into almost every second of its 108 minutes. It's blunt, sarcastic, and fearless. I need to see it again to catch all the lines I missed from laughing. Though I had a hard time keeping a handle on some of the plot points or characters, it really didn't matter because everything was just so funny. The cast is great and they make fun of how dumb politics are.

It's odd, I kept thinking, "maybe they'll find a way out of this and maybe Foster will be able to actually do something" but then it was like, "oh yeah... that whole starting-a-war-in-the-Middle-East thing already happened". So I guess the ending is predictable. But whatever. In the Loop is really awesome, period.

4.5/5