In the Loop

Armando Ianucci may not have been totally successful in graduating from British sitcom into feature film, but this political satire travels pretty well. Think The Office, but in government offices instead, and higher up the food chain, with a much higher quotient of profane invective. You can put on a better suit, but a bureaucrat is a bureaucrat, public or private. The plot, such as it is, is driven by obvious parallel to the run-up to the Iraq war, but is disconcertingly nonspecific. No matter -- at this level of ministerial maneuvering, it’s just the perpetual careerist game of kiss and knife in the back, dither and bluster, preen and shirk. So a British cabinet minister (Tom Hollander) makes a clueless remark about war being “unforeseeable” and gets to crank up his cluelessness on both sides of the Atlantic, as he becomes a pawn in the game, “meat in the room.” At least he can flatter himself that he is “in the loop,” however loopy. But the star of the show is the manic Peter Capaldi, spewing nonstop hilariously filthy insults, in apparent parody of Tony Blair’s communications director. This isn’t “The West Wing,” though they talk even faster. I don’t doubt the scalding truth of the satire on how Washington and London work on a day to day basis, but the Iraq parallel is a bit of a tease, and gave me unease. Nor did the pacing of the film seem to fit the 100-minute length. So this won’t make my top ten films of the year, as it did in the indieWire poll, but if you have a taste for wit with a sharp, cynical tang, it’s worth sampling. (2009, dvd.) *6+* (MC-83)