In the Loop, the feature film from the team behind UK TV series "The Thick of It" and film festival hit, opens today. For my money the comedy to top this year, the film's pedigree is almost astounding; the first theatrical release from Armando Iannucci ("I'm Alan Partridge"), the film was scripted by the writing team from "The Thick of It" and stars most of that series regular cast including Peter Capaldi, Chris Addison, Joanna Scanlan and James Smith, along with Anna Chlumsky, Steve Coogan, James Gandolfini, Tom Hollander, Mimi Kennedy and David Rasche, along with many others (LA residents will recognize local favorite Johnny Pemberton among them).
The official plot summary goes like this: "Both the US President and UK Prime Minister fancy a war but not everyone agrees, including the US Assistant Secretary for Diplomacy, a US army general and a floundering British Minister, Simon Foster. When Foster accidentally announces on national TV that war is unforeseeable, the British government is sent into a spiral of chaos and spin propagated by verbosely aggressive Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker. Foster attempts to neutralize his unforeseeable comment by telling the British public to prepare to climb the mountain of conflict, but soon finds himself bundled off to Washington on a fact-finder where he becomes both a pawn for the secret war committee and a poster boy for the general and the Assistant Secretary for Diplomacy's anti-war campaign." Sounds hilarious, I know, but the film succeeds on the strength of its ensemble cast, great obscenity-laced dialogue (with the jokes coming at a rapid-fire pace), and an acidic, unforgiving edge. This one gets the AST stamp of approval. And if it's not playing in your area, don't despair - it will be available for on-demand viewing on the IFC In Theaters and IFC Festival Direct channels starting July 29th.
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