In the Loop
Absolutely hilarious.The dialogue tends to put British phrasings in the mouths of American characters, but this is more than made up for by all the clever bits: the unbe-liev-ably foul-mouthed rants coming from Malcolm; General Miller and Karen Clarke crammed onto a child’s bed, working through troop allocations on a Leapfrog laptop; Chad’s naked antagonism of Liza; and of course Tom Hollander’s performance.I’ve loved that guy since Bedrooms & Hallways (and it’s nice to see another alum from that film, Paul Higgins, again), and he’s great here.
It’s like Wag the Dog; the subject matter is similar, and both movies can get too arch at times, but In the Loop doesn’t take quite as much time to congratulate itself, and the delivery has a far lower pH.
The gag with the warmonger attaché who doesn’t approve of cursing spelling out “shit” “ess star star tee,” and then the callback to that joke, is worth the price of admission. I don’t see it winning its category, but I wish it could.
I won its category, though, finally breaking through the six-categories barrier in a big way yesterday.Dig it…
Sarah 30, Death Race 28; 8 of 24 categories completed
Tags: movies Oscars 2010 Death Race Paul Higgins Tom Hollander
Thanks; you’ve sold me! I always loved ‘Wag the Dog’ (for reasons I cannot articulate) and I’ve been a Tom Hollander fan since ‘Gosford Park.’ Always glad to see him get some work.
Off to update my Netflix queue…
You should try to see the original BBC series In the Loop springs from – The Thick of It, originator of favourite phrase to respond to a door knock: “Come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off”
I’m so relieved that you liked this — and yes, definitely seconding Kate’s recommendation to watch the original series. It’s just wonderful and so delightfully sweary.
Love this movie! Fuckity-bye is the way the cooler me ends all of her phone calls.
The Thick of It is definitely worth a look. Malcolm’s definition of the carrot and stick approach is genius.
After THE HURT LOCKER, this was my favorite movie of last year. WAG THE DOG is a good comparison, but I was also reminded of DR. STRANGELOVE and a little-seen made-for-cable movie almost 20 years ago called Mastergate – written by Larry Gelbart, about hearings investigating how money for an action film was used to fund Latin American rebels. All of these films are excellent primers in government doublespeak, and what it says and doesn’t say (Hollander is particularly excellent at this aspect with IN THE LOOP, particularly when he’s trying to weasel his way out of saying war is “unforeseeable,” or when he is trying to get out of resigning). Although the creative swearing in the movie is certainly one of the reasons why it’s so funny – one of the most creative uses of “fuck” and its variants in a film not written by David Mamet – I think it’s how IN THE LOOP finds humor in the bureaucratic language that makes it so strong, and funny.
Gallagher: Ha! Mastergate! I remember reading a sort-of-screenplay, sort-of-transcript of that in one of those dippy “Scholastic Reading Magazine” things they handed out in grade-school English class.
(I remember how one of those had a barely-disguised pean to lesbian love, and the accompanying art supported the theme, and apparently I was the only one in class, including the teacher, who figured it out.)
*****
“Eff Star Star Kay”. It PISSES ME THE FUCK OFF when people do dumbass shit like that. Just fucking SWEAR, okay? You aren’t fooling ANYONE here, we all KNOW you mean “fuck”, either find a different word or just fucking SAY FUCK. Ahem. Although it’s worse when you get the people who, when they swear, stop making sound and mouth the word. That’s bull-(mouths the word “shit”).
Moved this to the top of my queue. Yay!
I also realized that I’d been watching The Wire all day long before washing it down with The Hurt Locker, to THL’s detriment. I should probably not do that in the future.
“In England we have a saying for situations like this, which is that it’s difficult difficult lemon difficult.”
LOVE. Peter Capaldi is funny as hell.
Okayokayokay. I Netflixed it and it’s sitting on top of my tv and I’m going to watch it tonight….
I love this film so much and I second/third/fourth all the calls to watch The Thick of It. It’s brilliant.
Love In the Loop. So very much. A friend of mine is in it, so I was going to check it out anyway, but damn – just too bloody fucking funny.
Saw it last night, and I think I might have to own it. Stupid netflix does not feel like having the series on hand, so I’ll have to get creative, but yeah. I want to turn Malcolm’s rants into ringtones, or stitch them onto needlepoint canvases with pictures of kittens playing with balls of yarn.