DVD Pick of the Week

This past week, I watched and very much enjoyed "In the Loop." The film is a political satire of the first rank. This quote is from the film's webpage:

With razor-sharp, truly laugh-out-loud dialogue the film pokes fun at the absurdity and ineptitude of our highest leaders. With everyone looking out for number one, and the fate of the free world at stake (but apparently incidental), the hilarious ensemble cast of characters bumbles its way through Machiavellian political dealings, across continents, and toward comic resolutions that are unforeseeable.

James Gandolfini is terrific in a significant post-Sopranos role as a dove in the Pentagon, but Scottish actor Peter Capaldi owns the film as a political flack for her Majesty's government.

If you don't know about the story, suffice to say that the U.S. and U.K. are headed to a war that seems to be favored by a crafty spin-doctor and a well-positioned neoconservative (plus his young followers), but is opposed by almost everyone else. The intelligence evidence for war is based on weak foreign sources or is simply fabricated whole-cloth. The "insider" war opponents are revealed to be weak-willed ineffective careerists.

Warning: if you remember former child actor Anna Chlumsky from "Uncle Buck" and "My Girl," then the movie may make you feel old. She's nearly 30 now...


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