How do you describe Malcolm Tucker to the world? How do you describe a fowl mouth, intimidating, shouty Scottish government spin doctor in a way that properly articulates the side splitting humor? In the Loop, is a movie derived from the very popular BBC TV series, The Thick of It, from
Armando Iannucci (he who is behind the HBO series VEEP).
Peter Capaldi (yes, Doctor Who) is Malcolm Tucker, who finds himself attempting to stave off an International joint war invasion when one of his British ministers slips up on a radio interview proclaiming war is inevitable. The Americans latch on to this, as they are looking for British support to go into the war with them and through wonderful manipulation takes this minister’s reluctance to back peddle (because he’s enjoying the attention) as validation they are moving forward together.
Tom Hollander plays the hapless minister who is at the center of all of this, with
James Gandolfini and
Mimi Kennedy working the American angle.
Be warned, the dialogue of this movie is outstandingly funny, with ‘fuck’ mentioned 135 times, of those, Tucker uses 86. You would think this would wear thin after a while, but trust me, it really doesn’t. It just gets funnier.
Simon Foster: Come on, Malcolm, he asked me for a personal opinion.
Malcolm Tucker: Why didn’t you say? He asked you. Fuck, of course, that explains it. If he’d asked you to fucking black up, or to give him your PIN number or to shit yourself, would you have done that?
Simon Foster: I would have blacked up, yes. It was radio, nobody would’ve known.
You may even find yourself uttering the odd Malcolm Tucker’ism in your daily work environment. I urge you to keep this as inner dialogue, however apt it may seem at the time. If you need a giggle/reminder, then watch the definitive Tucker https://youtu.be/Il3ZIoEHBBs
If you find this movie entertaining, then check out the original BBC TV series, it won’t disappoint.
#86 in the series
Viewing Date
Thursday, 12th November 2015 (Richmond)
Rating
8/10
IMDB YouTubeTrailer
alan williamson 