In the Loop

Aroview: Crushingly sharp political satire set in the hubbub of Whitehall and Washington, where petty political games are hilariously played out while the fate of the post-⁹⁄₁₁ world hangs in the balance.

Based on the director’s TV satire, THE THICK OF IT, the style here is cringe-inducing, free-wheeling screwball as a roving camera goes behind closed doors to capture the fumbling and foul-mouthed inter-dependence of spin-doctors, politicians and other officials down the food chain, taking no satirical prisoners on either side of the Atlantic. So thick with astute, lacerating epigrams, it may need repeat viewings to absorb them all, but the broader implications are as frightening as they are funny.

Stand-outs among the plumb cast are Peter Capaldi, who reprises his TV role as a hot-headed ‘communications director’, Tom Hollander as a gaffe-prone, insecure politician and Steve Coogan as an (ironically) sympathetic blue-collar constituent.