The Last Movie I Saw

I believe that satire is really only effective if the target is both deserving and substantial enough, and the goal of the barb is to actually make a po0int and not just generate a laugh. A show like Saturday Night Live too often goes for the cheap and easy shot, and rarely hammers the real culprits (or the right actions by those culprits), and it certainly doesn't represent an actual, thought out perspective of its own; Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are better on the first point, but again, one would be hard-pressed to say with certainty what, if any, constructive political goal is evident in their skewering of others' misplaced pomposity. That isn't meant as criticism, and certainly not an argument that they aren't funny (I even find enough to laugh at in the recent seasons of SNL to tune in just about every week), just a reason for why I think they fall short of qualifying as true satire.

In the Loop, the new film by Armando Iannucci, is real satire. Its target is the system that allowed for the fabrication of a rationale for war with Iraq, and the self-centered opportunists who drove the process. Every action that unfolds among its large cast of characters is calculated by the individuals to maximize their own chance for advancement, politically or otherwise (and that's as true of the war's opponents as it is of its advocates). They remain essentially uncaring about the effects on the rest of the world outside their bubble, and define success only in terms of the immediate points scored against their closest rivals. That sounds pretty bleak, but the movie is darkly hilarious nonetheless. The key to its success, I think, is that its all-out attack on the short-sighted, selfish, and downright stupid behavior of those purportedly in charge amount to an argument for greater accountability and oversight that is possible if the masses will only start to pay attention. That is, Iannucci can imagine a government based not on the ideology of power unchecked (whether defined individually or institutionally), but service to the community (represented here by the angry constituent who just needs a bit of help to prop up a crumbling wall). I remain dubious if a film can really generate that kind of response from its audience, but I hope filmmakers like Iannucci keep issuing the call.

One other thing: it was nice to see a couple of actors in this film who I haven't seen in anything in fifteen or twenty years, and both playing characters worlds away from how I remember them. Peter Capaldi, who was the whimsically clumsy Danny in Bill Forsyth's Local Hero, is here as the almost pure evil Malcolm Tucker: an amazing and very funny performance. Anna Chlumsky was last seen (by me anyway) as the pre-teen heroine of My Girl; she's more subtly devious than Capaldi's character in In the Loop, but an equally long road from the innocence of that earlier character.