Those of you who have not yet been exposed to the particular brilliance of Brit satirist Armando Iannucci, strap in and be prepared for your introduction: a clip from his Sundance hit In The Loop has just arrived online at the Guardian's film site. In many ways In The Loop is a continuation and expansion of Iannucci's fantastic television series The Thick Of It in that it carries over a couple Thick Of It characters and continues to poke holes in the political process by focusing on the secondary players, the people behind the scenes who get caught up in much larger events - in this case the build up to war. But for those unfamiliar, this film also functions absolutely perfectly as a stand-alone entity, with no previous exposure required to get any of the jokes or understand the characters. All that Iannucci requires is a very quick ear and nimble mind to keep up as things rip along at a ferocious pace.
This particular clip revolves around the Malcolm Tucker character - a Thick Of It fave - Tucker being the incredibly foul mouthed head of government PR, tasked with keeping everyone in all branches of government on point and on message. When things don't go according to plan? Well, heed the Guardian's advice that "This clip contains exotic swearing."
Absolutely brilliant. Can't wait for the film.