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If you're not fond of bad language, best you fuck off right now for In The Loop is a swear-fest on a scale not heard since Lucifer was cast down. And even he might pall at the brusquely colourful tone erupting from Malcolm's unhappy mouth. A senior public servant, he's displeased that a government minister has inadvertently backed Britain into supporting a war, a gaff that forces London and Washington staffers into a snarling fit of self-serving savagery as they try to undo the damage. Or as Malcolm yells while iridescently abusing a male colleague: “Marie Antionette? Why don't you go play with your fucking horse cocks! Let them eat cock!” You get the idea.
Cinematically, In The Loop is immediately familiar: the docu-style roving camera, shock zooms and lengthy pauses seen in The Office or Hollowmen betray the film's TV roots (it grew from In The Thick Of It with BBC comedy stalwart Simon Blackwell (Kumars, Graham Norton) co-writing the screenplay). Let that go and it quickly become a riot of performance and wit as the Machiavellian dealings of statecraft are satirised to within an inch of their lives in a uniquely British way: outrageously clever and deliriously juvenile all at once.
It's true that there's hardly a sympathetic character to be found which is part irritant, part irresistible. Credit to cast and crew who make watching these vile, self-serving world leaders striking one another into subservience the stuff of political nirvana - if only Question Time was conducted thus. The satanic spawn of Yes, Minister and Dr. Strangelove, In The Loop is without doubt one of the most foul-mouthed and despicably funny movies currently on screen.
// COLIN FRASER
moviereview colin fraser film movie australia review critic flicks