DVDs in Review

In the Loop

Title: In the Loop ( 2009)

Release date: August 24 2009

Certificate: 15

Format:Reviewed on DVD, available on Blu-ray

DVD RRP: £17.99

Rating: 4/5

Considering that this film is all talk, it's absolutely riveting. Somehow the dialogue has all the timing of a suspense thriller, but it's peppered with laugh out loud lines. And it's a fitting indictment of the state of British/American politics.

Armando Iannucci's biting satire is an update to his show 'The Thick of It', which means that the unforgettably insulting political spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (an outstanding Peter Capaldi) returns, frantically pacing, shouting and threatening with chilled malice.

The plot sees a war starting and the Brits and Americans are trying to spin it to their advantage. The unintentional spanner in the works is a low-ranking politician who lets slip that a war "isn't foreseeable". This small, throwaway statement sets off a chain of events - a media frenzy and a political circus.

Suddenly this dimwit Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) is whisked over to Washington as an advisor. Think 'Being There' meets 'Wag the Dog' with a few nods in the direction of 'Dr Strangelove' and you'll be on the right track.   

Soon he's blurting out statements like "climb the mountain of conflict", to which Tucker fumes that it sounds "a Nazi Julie Andrews"

The script is phenomenal. It is loaded, completely brimmed with information and delivered at such speed that it feels completely genuine. Iannucci's handheld style only adds to the improvisational, fly on the wall style.

Throw in a brilliant comedic turn from 'Sopranos' star James Gandolfini and a brief, but rewarding, role by Steve Coogan and 'In the Loop' makes for an excellent few hours of intelligent, witty and expletive-laden laughs. Strongly recommended.