+ Best Political Movie of the Year
 |
| The cross-Atlantic political communication is at the heart of this poster for Armando Iannucci's In the Loop |
When the British minister of international development messes up in a live radio interview by referring to an imminent war in the Middle East as "unforeseeable", he becomes cannon fodder for war-mongering American allies.
Despite shaky photography that is all but pleasant and a gallery of almost entirely unendearing characters (mainly gutter-mouthed spin doctors), In the Loop is a political satire that wins because of its mix of well-written verbal jokes, crude tongue-in-cheek gags and absurd comedy, which proves irresistible and provokes numerous good laughs for the not-easily-offended audience.
The swearing is a bit much at times, as is the wall-to-wall dialog, but good acting performances and an original and disillusioned vision of modern politics hold one's engagement throughout despite these misgivings.
In the Loop is written by Jesse Armstrong (Veep (2012), TV-series), Simon Blackwell (The Thick of It (2005-12)), Tony Roche (Veep (2012-15)) and co-writer-director Armando Iannucci (The Thick of It (2005-12)), with Ian Martin (The Death of Stalin (2017)) contributing dialog.
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Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Reportedly 612k £, or approximately 788k $
Box office: 7.7 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[In the Loop premiered 22 January (Sundance) and runs 105 minutes. The film was made in a lengthy hiatus between the filmmakers' 2nd and 3rd season of their related political satire TV-series The Thick of It. Shooting took place in England, mostly in London, and in Washington, DC and in New York from May - June 2008. The first cut of the film was 4.5 hours long. The film opened #27 in 8 theaters to a 191k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 90 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 2.3 mil. $ (28.9 % of the total gross), becoming the film's 2nd largest market. The largest was the UK with 3.5 mil. $ (45.5 %), and the 3rd largest was Spain with 611k $ (7.9 %). The film was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar (due to the film being perceived as directly based on The Thick of It), lost to Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, 6 British Independent Spirit Awards, winning one, a National Board of Review award and many more honors. In the Loop is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of In the Loop?
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