Armando Iannucci's In the Loop is political satire at its sharpest and most vitriolic. It features stand-out performances from Peter Capaldi, as the British prime minister's foul-mouthed communications director (we would have quoted him here had a single one of his lines been even remotely printable), and James Gandolfini as a peacenik US general ("Once you've been [to war], once you've seen it, you never want to go again unless you absolutely fucking have to. It's like France"). In the Loop details calamitous double-dealings and bureaucratic backstabbing in the lead-up to warinan unnamed Middle Eastern country. Screening tonight at Moonlight Cinemas in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and tomorrow in Brisbane.

The Australian, 12 January 2010