Hyde Park Blvd

For TC (and others) who didn’t understand ‘A Serious Man.’  They are not always detectives, but the main characters in Coen Brothers movies resemble Raymond Chandler’s remark about his own main character:

Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honour – by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.

Peter Capaldi and James Gandolfini going nose-to-nose

“In the Loop” Armando Iannucci’s send-up of Anglo-American relations is among the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time.  It makes similar, Stateside political satires (“Bulworth,” “Swing Vote,” Wag the Dog”) feel limp and unfocused.  Only the efforts by the South Park team, including “Bigger, Longer…” and “Team America” make it to the photo.  A.O. Scott’s original NYT review is spot on.

Acting and script are outstanding.  It’s the kind of movie you want to see several times because the lines are so smart — and funny and furious.