In the Loop

In the Loop

Just recently, I was recommended an obscure British comedy series called  “The Thick of It”, which offered a satirical view of the inner workings  of a Modern British government. I thought satire, politics and British  humor would be great ingredients for a first class comedy. And I’m glad I  was right! “In the Loop” is a film spin-off to “The Thick of It”, but  instead of dealing with local politics, it now goes global - the  President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United  Kingdom are looking to launch a war in the Middle East. We follows  government officials and advisers in their behind-the-scenes efforts  either to promote the war or prevent it.

The timing couldn’t have been more appropriate for “In the Loop”, given  the then new Obama administration. One has to be a blind fool not to  notice who and what this film spoofs.

What makes “The Thick of It” and “In the Loop” so bloody brilliant, and  sets it miles apart from other similarly themed comedies? First of all,  it is filmed with a handheld camera, giving a documentary feel. Also, to  add to it, a certain percentage of the script is completely improvised  and with it having no soundtrack whatsoever (although the film has some)  you really couldn’t tell you’re watching something fictional. Although,  I bet my ass it’s much less fictional than we ordinary people think.

Then, there’s the humor. Oh, the fucking humor! It took me a while to  get accustomed to it. Well, American comedies are always punctuated,  timed. The situation when you’re supposed to laugh is always made very  clear – either by the really fucking annoying laugh tracks, or by body  language. Now, British comedies tend to omit the laugh track quite  often, but still the small body language cues remain. Well, not here.  There is not a single visual gag present in the script. It’s all in the  dialogue. It’s called deadpan or dry humor, I think. Well, whatever the  name, it doesn’t matter. What matters is “In the Loop” is as far away  from your average comedy as possible. To enjoy it, you need to like  satire, like British humor and kind of get adjusted to the fact there’s  no hints given when to laugh. You also need to have some clue about  politics and how things are really done. If you’re truly believe the  politicians are honest people working for the greater good of us all,  then skip this as you’ll most probably be offended by how they’re  portrayed. To give you an example, one of my favorite scenes is when  they get a crucial report of pros and cons of going to war, the report  that will influence the voting of the War Committee. Before presenting  it they skim through it on a laptop, and one of the characters says:  “OK, now go to page 9. The arguments against the war, see them? … Yeah?  OK. Delete it.”

And finally, there’s the language. If F-bombs were really bombs, there  would be none of the world left. Most of the juicy curse words come from  the Director of Communications, the mad Scotsman Malcolm  Tucker played by the brilliant Peter Capaldi. He’s such a great and  badass character. It was the case with the series, I guess it was the  same with the film: before the actual shoot, the script went to Ian Martin who acted as a special swearing consultant. How awesome is that? And there are certainly some very, very innovative insults here, like:

Malcolm Tucker: Why don't you just scuttle off back to fucking Cranford and play around with your tea and your cakes and your fucking horse cocks?!

(speaking on the mobile phone in the middle of the street)
Malcolm Tucker: A certain vinegar-faced, manipulative cowbag is about to discover that she's out of a fucking... job. Fucking hung up, haven't you? You fucking hoity-toity fucking—
Random guy: Hey, buddy? Enough with the curse words, all right?
Malcolm Tucker: Kiss my sweaty balls, you fat fuck!

The acting’s just great. “In the Loop” assembled an awesome cast,  including some cast members from the series, but all in different roles  except from the aforementioned Peter Capaldi. On the American side, we  have the legendary David “Sledge Hammer” Rasche acting as Linton  Barwick, US Assistant Secretary, Policy. There’s James Gandolfini as  Gen. George Miller, Senior Military Assistant for the Pentagon; and  others. Many didn’t like the whole non-scripted, improvised approach but  I loved it and thought it just added more to the feel of authenticity.

In the end, what can I say? I don’t think there’s a gray area here –  you’ll either love it or hate it. The critics, to my surprise, seem to  fall in the former category: “In the Loop” holds a 93% fresh rating on  Rotten Tomatoes, and a 7.7/10 from general audiences on IMDb. It was  even nominated for Oscar, but in a category no one gives a shit about:  for Best Adapted Screenplay. Personally, I was blown away. This  is the best comedy I’ve seen this year, and the best comedy since “Hot  Fuzz” (although thematically they're totally different), matched  only by the equally brilliant “The  Onion Movie” (which has a similar theme as "In the Loop"). It is  definitely not for everyone, though.

Rating: 10/10

RATED PURE GENIUS

- review by Ventilation Shaft

Recommendations:

In the Loop

In the Loop - Written (partially) and directed by Armando Ianucci, starring Tom Hollander, James Gandolfini, and Peter Capaldi - Rated R

In the Loop is the hilarious satire of a joint British-American buildup to war in an unnamed middle eastern country. War in the middle east isn't exactly the funniest topic out there, so this film focuses on how ridiculous the political world is. If you've heard anything about this movie, you've probably heard about Peter Capaldi's hilarious turn as Malcolm Tucker. There's nothing I can write that will add to the mountain of praise he has already received, so I'll just let you know that everything you've heard/read is absolutely correct. In the Loop is definitely one of the funniest films of 2009 and it's one of those great, rapid-fire comedies that you need to watch two or three times to catch all of the jokes. Definitely check this one out. At worst, you'll only find Capaldi to be funny.

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Eric Harris - www.canneltoncritic.com

In The Loop

Be warned before you slot this disc into your DVD player - In The Loop features more swearing than you're likely to hear during the entire remainder of the year.

Mind you, despite those warnings when we were kids that swearwords were the last resort of the inarticulate and dull, writer-director Armando Iannucci manages to turn his cussing into one of the sharpest art forms. You really haven't experienced profanity until you've heard Peter Capaldi's immaculately witty rants.

Essentially a satire of the build-up to the 2003 Iraq War, In The Loop is more about the petty struggles and failures that happened in the back corridors of the White House and Westminster than the big, headline-making proclamations of world leaders.

This is a peek behind the curtain of power - and if real politicians behave anything like this, it's no wonder that they need that curtain. They'd better invest in some heavy soundproofing, too.

Spinning off from Iannucci's critically acclaimed TV series The Thick Of It, In The Loop follows Britain's bungling Minister For International Development, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), as he accidentally entangles himself in the preparations for war. A misguided statement on a radio show that war in the Middle East is "unforeseeable" brings him to the attention of his American counterparts, and before he really knows what's hit him Foster is shipped off to Washington to represent Britain at a secret meeting.

This would be bad enough for his career - and his health - but Foster also has the Prime Minister's enforcer, Malcolm Tucker (Capaldi), on his back. Tucker is rabidly ferocious, utterly scathing, and intolerant of pretty much everything with a pulse. Foster really does look like a particularly clueless rabbit in the glare of his headlights.

He has problems in his constituency too, thanks to irate voter Paul Michaelson (Steve Coogan), and as the world teeters on the brink of war, so Simon Foster's political career also dangles by a thread. You get the feeling that one more expletive-laced tirade from Tucker might be enough to blow him away entirely.

The ensemble cast tackle Iannucci's script with wit and imagination, and James Gandolfini adds some extra international credibility to the line-up, but the real star of the show here is Capaldi. Admittedly he's handed the best of the X-rated material, but he spits it out with such ire and brimstone that you can almost feel sparks flying from the screen. You can't help feeling that there are a few real life politicians who could do with a rude awakening from Malcolm Tucker.

In The Loop's final twenty minutes disappoint a little, as it's forced to fall back on its weakest element - the plot - to wrap things up, but even though you'll see the twist coming you'll still be laughing and squirming in your seat. It just goes to show that British satire doesn't have to end with Sacha Baron Cohen - here's a movie that has bite as well as bark.

Booze Revooze: A Drinker’s Skewed Review of IN THE LOOP

Ramblings: All Tied Up
Here she is older:

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Al K Hall<br />
Functional Alcoholic Slurperson<br />
(No, REALLY. Google &amp;quot;Slurperson&amp;quot; if you don't believe me.)

Last updated: 2010-04-04 09:59:27 by user08

IN THE LOOP

***½

A sharp, manic, frequently very funny political satire, even if it never particularly transcends its TV roots.

We May Have Found Summer’s Sleeper with ‘In The Loop’

Political comedy is a hard stunt to pull off. Ever since 1964, it seemed like nothing could top Dr. Strangelove. A lot of movies have tried and a lot have failed, although there were the lucky few that passed the bar (Election, Thank You for Smoking) but the brilliant thing about In The Loop is that it's so stupidly funny that it's one of the best comedies of the 21^st Century! Armando Iannucci, most known for his The Thick of It series in the UK, directs a movie with the a the familiar theme of The Office. That documentary-style of filmmaking can be hit-or-miss (most recently,Public Enemies, a miss) and Iannucci hits it right on. Every scene he graces with a camera comes out picture perfect; nobody could've pegged this movie any better. Iannucci, Jesse Armstrong, Tony Roche and Simon Blackwell's script is something out of picture show heaven and sounds like it must've taken forever to finish, edit, revise, etc. Although these guys, these geniuses, apparently know what they're doing and don't care what anybody else says. That is the heart and soul of movie-making, readers.

In The Loop is about a corrupt British government that accidentally gets the country thrown into the middle of a war.Loop stars Peter Capaldi, Gina McKee, James Gandolfini, Chris Addison and there's even a whimsical cameo by Steve Coogan. Capaldi is the absolute best at what he did, spewing swears as coarse as they are a riot ("fuck you, you lubricated horse cock!") and freaking out. I can't even put into words just how funny this guy was; he made the movie! But don't forget Addison as Toby. Addison is the British Napoleon Dynamite, that incredibly awkward guy that makes even the audience members turn red. James Gandolfini and Gina McKee round out the rest of the cast greatly, filling In The Loop with the type of sexual tension that you don't want to think about. It's like when a sex scene pops up on a DVD you're watching with your parents. Yeah, that bad.In The Loop is one of the most laugh out loud comedies I've seen in the past decade, that sadly nobody will get a chance to watch. In a world of Transformers and G.I Joe,In The Loop will sadly be ignored. But on an optimistic note, we may have found this summer's sleeper, America.

5/5 stars.

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-Nick

In The Loop

Sigh if only Malaysian politics could be as retardedly funny as In The Loop. Oh wait yes they are. The retarded part, not the funny part. Just retarded.Yeap!



Okay so In The Loop is one of the 5 nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film itself was based on a BBC television series called The Thick of It. The film is a satirical portrayal of the political events between the British and American government that lead to the decrement of the 2003 war in Iraq. In The Loop cent res around a foulmouthed PR adviser for the English Prime Minister, a bumbling British senator and his novice political aide, the scheming US Asst. Secretary of State and a retired US Lieutenant General.



So is this a boring political film you ask? Hell naw! It's a mockery really that In The Loop only landed one Oscar nomination. This film is fruckin hilarious. Every bit of this movie is dedicated to insulting the incompetent administration during the Bush and Blair years and how the war in the Middle East which eventually took hundreds of thousands of innocent lives was the product of a small little hiccup of incredibly baseless evidence.



Peter Capaldi should have been nominated for a Best Supporting Actor award for his role as Malcolm Tucker. This guy is the funniest thing I have ever seen in British comedy. And I hate British comedy. His character is the one who has to deal with all the shit Tom Hollander's character and the other US politicians put him through. One after another they keep fucking up and what does Malcolm Tucker do? He goes on a F U rampage with some of the most vulgar and imaginative curse words I have ever seen in my life.



This dude spends a good 45 minutes of the film being uncontrollably angry at every single person. And magnificently after foul-mouthing the politicians for screwing up, he miraculously by the wit and greatness of his loins, his character manages to fix everything and save the asses of hundreds of useless politicians who have no idea what their doing. Hahaha this guy should run for President!



And just because he is the funniest thing in the film doesn't mean he wasn't the best performance. He was actually. One scene where he found himself really in deep shit because of a backstabbing political aide, his character showed 3 seconds of helplessness on his face and I was like, "Wow!"



Tom Hollander was oh so awesome in this to. He plays what I think is a version of Sarah Palin. He is that small time senator that gets pushed into the big pond with other big shot politicians and just fumbles his way through everything. And the greatest thing about it is that he has to much of an ego to realize that he is making an absolute jerk of himself.



Other than those two, In The Loop is packed full with other comedic moments. Be it the one where senators are balancing a budget using a kids calculator, a senator and his aide sharing a room together, not wearing pants and watching animal porn on Discovery Channel (very Anwar like) or Tom Hollander's character giving Sarah Palin answers to every single question he is asked or how he pretends that he is busy doing "work" when the US Secretary of State passes by. Hahahahahaha.



I love this movie man. You'll love this especially if you have a personal grudge against lousy politicians that screw up everything they touch but are covered up by brilliant PR people. This film will have you laughing the whole way through knowing that there are politicians like these everywhere, not just in Malaysia. Peter Capaldi for President!

RATING: 8/10

NicholasC

Complex, biting, rich with British and American humor

Fast paced blend of close-to-truth political intrigue, satire, clever banter and intensity, with enough simplified and goofy humor to keep American audiences shrieking with laughter. The LA festival audience was blessedly quiet through the more subtle and deeply clever humor, so if you have a pan-Atlantic sensibility you can laugh at the cleverly done but obvious stuff, as well as the richer humor that requires attention.

The cast - American, English and Scottish all did an amazing job with high synergy.

There is quite a lot of both obvious and subtle political and cultural allegory, homages, and oblique references.

It was great to see it in a packed theater, and get that immersive social experience one does not get with a DVD.

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Vincent Snavely