In the Loop (2008) NYT Critics' Pick

[lsanderson]

In the Loop, Armando Iannucci's political satire, with Mimi Kennedy and James Gandolfini.
July 24, 2009
War of Words, Misspoken and Spun
By A. O. SCOTT

It is somehow fitting that the unruly plot of “In the Loop,” a sharply written, fast-talking, almost dementedly articulate satire on modern statecraft, should commence with a verbal slip-up. In an atmosphere of impending military action, as the governments of Britain and the United States gear up to invade an unspecified Middle Eastern country, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), the British minister of international development, gives an interview to the BBC. Surprised by a question outside his area of expertise —whatever that might be — he declares that in his view “war is unforeseeable.” More