Some background for you: In the Loop is a spin off film of a BBC television series called The Thick of It that has been running since 2005. I’ve never seen a single episode of the series save for a few clips that are available on Youtube. But I’m afraid that my wallet is about to get a lot lighter due to my quest to find and procure the entirety of this series.¬† Psst.¬† Netflix, please!

Per the wikipedia article on the series, In the Loop doesn’t stray too far from the its originator as it follows hopefully fictitious versions of the types of people in British parliament. The main crux of the story deals with Malcolm Tucker (played by my new favorite person, not just favorite actor, PERSON, Peter Capaldi) the Director of Communications for British Parliament and his attempts to fix, stop, or somehow make the comments about an “unforeseeable” war in the Middle East work for parliament and their party line. ¬†This catalyst is propagated¬†by Minister for International Development, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander, Pirates of the Caribbean). Members of the U.S. Government (including James Gandolfini in role that I actually like him in, being the most notable) on both the “for” and “against” sides of the war jump on the Minister’s comments and attempt to use him in a ploy to meet either of their own ends.

If that very brief summary bored the shit out of you, clean yourself up and rent this movie anyway. This isn’t the movie you think it’s going to be…well actually it is and it isn’t. It’s all politics but that’s merely a back drop to the general depravity of the characters and their willingness to absolutely screw each other over to get what they want which is usually to further their own careers.¬† This would be a horrible, depressing movie if it wasn’t so fucking funny. The writers for this movie, and the series on which it is based, use former advisers and in some cases former parliament members to help aid in their writing. A lot of the brilliant and sharp dialogue coupled with horrible people running our lives, while not necessarily present in reality, is in fact based in reality. The writers pull no punches with any of these characters and even the most idealistic and as close to noble as they can get in this film are all, ultimately, irredeemable. But the writing isn’t all tongue-in-cheek, proper British discourse.

The character of Malcolm Tucker makes this movie and you will wait, hope and pray for Malcolm to show back up on the screen whenever he’s not there. That’s not to discredit any of the other characters in the least; they are all very entertaining even, as I mentioned, Gandolfini’s Lt. Gen. Miller (I really hate most of his stuff, if you didn’t know) is a joy to watch and laugh at. But…well…if you know nothing of this movie or the series then “Tucker’s Law,” as recited in The Thick of It, seems to sum up his character:

Malcolm Tucker’s insults are treatises in dehumanization. The sheer brutality of the words are compounded by the hate and contempt for incompetence Capaldi infuses into Malcolm. Peter Capaldi is supposedly one of the nicest, most gentle human beings to have ever walked this earth after Buddha. But as described by one of his costars during some improv before filming their first scene in The Thick of It, “the veins popped out of his neck, his eyes out their sockets, then came the cursing and I was scared.” The man’s only mission is to safeguard the PM from “stupid cunts” that threaten the party’s line. Cursing has never been more poetic than with this character. If you needed another reason other than to laugh to watch this movie, watch it to learn how to cuss and insult people better.

So the movie did it’s job and it did beyond well. It satirized the crap out of government in a wholly entertaining way. If my write up didn’t convince you, at least rent the movie to see what Anna “My Girl” Chlumpsky turned out. Yeah, she’s in there.¬† Approved and Recommended.

A tea towel, for your trouble

10. Watchmen

I get the strange feeling that anyone other than Zack Snyder would’ve really mucked this adaptation up horribly.¬† Snyder seems to really understand the book and the themes and the imagery and it’s all translated in a way that is relatively painless.¬† It’s not quite as good on repeat viewings as it is that first time, and the director’s cut is actually much more rounded out and should’ve been the theatrical release.¬† I don’t care if it tops 3 hours; it was just a better movie with the extra things thrown in because Watchmen is all about the details.¬† It’s all about the little things.¬† Jackie Earle Haley stole the show here as well, and of course you can never see too many blue dongs.
 

9. The Hangover

I was actually pretty worried it wouldn’t hold up on repeat viewings, but I‚Äôve seen it 3 times and The Hangover is still as funny as it ever was.¬† I like how Todd Phillips took this cast of dudes who people in the mainstream didn’t really recognize, and cranked out one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.¬† The real strength of the movie was in its writing the solid directing and the fact that it doesn’t just look like every other cheap comedy. This movie is striking and looks like a real film.¬† The ensemble cast is great, and then of course you have Ken Jeong and Zach Galifianakis stealing most of the scenes they’re in.¬† It’s also forever changed the pronunciation of the word retard for me.
 

8. Star Trek

I consider myself a pretty big fan of JJ Abrams.¬† However, I didn’t really have much confidence in anyone rebooting this franchise at all.¬† I just didn’t think it could be done.¬† It had gotten so stale (thanks largely in part to the totally fucking drab Next Generation films) that a successful reboot seemed unlikely no matter who was at the helm.¬† Karl Urban as Bones?¬† Chris Pine as Kirk?¬† Who the fuck is Chris Pine?? Being proven wrong in this case was so fulfilling.¬† Star Trek is easily the most fun I had at the movie theater in the summer of ’09.¬† Chris Pine IS Kirk.¬† Holy crap, that dude is the tits.¬† There’s certainly alot of fan service here, but it’s all so well done and not in an annoying fashion at all.¬† Oh, and to any of you grumpy nerds out there that didn’t like Simon Pegg as Scotty?¬† EAT SHIT.¬† Pegg can kick a can around on screen for two hours and I’d think it was great.
 

7. Moon

As soon as I read Dustin’s review of Moon during SXSW, I knew I had to see this.¬† It just seemed so different and fresh from most of the other sci-fi garbage that gets put out.¬† This is another one of those intricately woven character focused films that features an outstanding performance from Sam Rockwell.¬† Sadly, I doubt he will earn any sort of nod as a best actor which I believe he 100% deserves. This is a very small science fiction movie, but at the same time it has these really giant epic undertones to the story.¬† The world and the implications are so much bigger than what is happening.¬† The sets are awesome, Rockwell is dynamite and, well, you need to see it.
 

6. The Hurt Locker

From the extremely intense scenes of bomb disarming to Jeremy Renner just being plain awesome, The Hurt Locker ruled and totally caught me by surprise.¬† It’s a good character study and a smaller movie, which feels bigger every time these crazy bastards take apart some weird terrorist style concoction.¬† The movie is also pretty much the perfect war movie.¬† It’s very authentic in a military sense and excels in not being just a ‘good guys vs. bad guys’ picture.¬† It drills down on just who these guys are and what makes them tick and what it’s like to do what they do.¬† Amazing film.
 

5. Avatar

What can there really be said about this that hasn’t been said a hundred times by the Breach already?¬† James Cameron invented a brand new world in a sci-fi universe full of new exotic characters, creatures, plant life, you name it.¬† When I saw this (in 3D, twice, GO SEE IT) I couldn’t help but mutter to myself that James Cameron fucking DID IT.¬† He pulled it off.¬† I will be the first to admit that I was skeptical and thought that there was a really good chance that this movie would be flat as a fucking pancake and be a financial disaster.¬† I’m so glad that I was dead wrong.
 

4. Up

Absolutely beautiful.¬† A perfect blend of a good, adult oriented story and animation that you kind of forget is animation when the movie gets into full swing.¬† Pixar time and again is able to knock this shit out of the park, and this movie is really no different.¬† It will also likely strip you of your manhood and have you weeping like a little girl with a skinned knee.¬† That is assuming you are a man of course.¬† We actually have female readers out there too, I must not overlook.¬† Up will leave the female viewer weeping like…well like you do in every movie.¬† Look at that, I turned the part with the most heartwarming movie of the year into something that will garner me some hate mail.¬† Up is fantastic and if you haven’t seen it, then seriously, what the hell?
 

3. District 9

Wikus Van De Merwe’s story is a science fiction tale that we’ll remember for a long time, folks.¬† Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 is one of the most original science fiction movies to come along in quite some time.¬† Never a dull moment in District 9, not a one.¬† I was glued to the screen and having to keep from shouting “HOLY SHIT!!” every time something awesome happened.¬† The integration of the cg aliens alongside human characters is some of the best seen in a movie to date, if not the best and it only got prettier on the blu-ray.¬† You don’t view this movie thinking in terms of, “well there is a cg character and there’s a live character”, no.¬† You buy it wholesale and it never fucks with your viewing experience.¬† It’s also got some of the craziest (and bloodiest) action sequences in quite some time and will leave any fan of the genre extremely satisfied.
 

2. Where The Wild Things Are

I know, I know, I declared this my favorite movie of the year in my review.¬† Really, the only reason it slipped out of the top spot is due to my revisiting of Inglourious Basterds and coming to terms with the greatness that is that movie.¬† Wild Things–I guess that isn’t really an appropriate abbreviation.¬† I don’t want anyone to confuse this spot with the Neve Campbell/Denise Richards masterpiece.¬† I’ll just use WTWTA, how about that?¬† Alright then.¬† I’ve figured out along the way that WTWTA almost requires you to be a little melancholy and misunderstood in order to really unlock the experience of the movie fully.¬† I’m sure that quite a few would disagree with me out there, but I feel that this is a major component to it.¬† I hate saying that someone didn’t “get” a movie, I try and avoid using that terminology but in this case I think it’s true.¬† James Gandolfini is wonderful as Carol, the young boy playing Max has gone largely overlooked and ignored by critics even though his performance is actually quite moving.¬† Spike Jonze did an excellent job of¬†seamlessly blending the wild things with Max and has really done the impossible- turn a tiny little book into something grand and rather timeless.
 

1. Inglourious Basterds

My original review of this Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds wasn’t glowing enough. I admit this. This isn’t a movie that you see one time and understand just how well made it is.¬† It plays nicely the first time, but upon subsequent viewings it really begins to take shape and you can appreciate how much of a master QT is of cinematic storytelling.¬†¬† Normally, I can pick out favorite scenes in movies fairly easily, but this one is rather difficult because everything is just so well done and never lets your attention trail from the screen.¬† Brad Pitt’s Italian, Eli Roth’s ‘Bear Jew’ antics, Christoph FUCKING Waltz as the viciously evil Colonel Hans Landa–all brilliant.¬† This is Quentin Tarantino’s most complete film to date and my favorite movie of the year.