In the Loop (R13)
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This sharply caustic, cynical, fast-talking and madcap British satire – one of the best of its kind, with elements of Yes, Minister, Wag the Dog and Dr Strangelove to it – is wickedly and wittily funny.
A spinoff of the TV series The Thick of It, its spin on political spin will leave you so dizzy you might want to see it twice to take it all in.
It has a hapless British cabinet minister (Tom Hollander) making an innocuous comment that gets him involved in a tangled US political debate between hawks and doves addressing an invasion of an unspecified Middle Eastern country.
Worse, it also earns him the wrath of a venomous, insulting, controlling communications director for the prime minister (Peter Capaldi).
Filmed with hand-held cameras in a mock-doco style, In the Loop brilliantly shreds a mentality in which self-interest is more important than national interest and possibly make you suspicious that this satire might be too close for comfort to the way inner government actually works.
- Reviewed by David Manning. DVDs for review supplied by United Video, Nelson.
- © Fairfax NZ News
