Screengrab editor emeritus Bilge Ebiri reports from the frontlines of Park City.

There was plenty of buzz on Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop even before the fest started, as a result of both some advance press screenings and people’s fondness for Iannucci’s past work on hit UK shows such as The Thick of It. And while the film is certainly very, very funny, the advance word on it as a kind of Dr. Strangelove-style satire on the run-up to the Iraq War seems decidedly misplaced. For starters, I don’t think Iraq is actually ever mentioned in the film – with good reason, because the film appears to be taking place in an alternate contemporary universe where the UK and the US are preparing to go to war with an unnamed country, without any regard for the actual run-up to the Iraq War. The story here, such as it is, centers around the efforts of an embattled UK government minister (Tom Hollander) and what happens when he accidentally voices opposition to the impending war. As he tries to preserve his status within the corridors of power, we get the sense that everyone else around him is trying to do the same. Certainly, the U.S Assistant Secretary for Diplomacy (Mimi Kennedy) has found herself in a similar position, after airing a report from one of her aides criticizing the war. As everyone scrambles to maintain their professional dignity, they lose sight of the greater indignity about to be perpetrated on tens of thousands of human beings.

What I’ve just described actually sounds like a pretty solid premise for a caustic satire, but I’m not sure In the Loop is that movie. If it is even a satire, it’s a largely flaccid one – its humor comes not from irony or circumstance but from the nasty and intensely quotable wit of its embittered, foulmouthed characters. Imagine The West Wing peopled entirely by Entourage’s Ari Gold, and you get the general idea. Strangelove works its way towards a conclusion that makes us choke on our laughter, as we look around and realize what we’ve allowed ourselves to be entertained by. In the Loop never quite offers a similar moment of clarity – it’s content to remain in its hermetically sealed world of ticked-off characters talking shit to one another. Lacking dramatic shape or purpose, its only real weapon is the sheer energy with which they rack up the punchlines, and that can’t help but flag as the film meanders towards its finale; after all the lubricated horse cock and poodle-fucking jokes, what, really, are we left with? But again, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t laugh quite a bit, especially in the first hour. Watching a bunch of embittered, sarcastic Type A jackwads going around hurling funny insults at one another certainly has its place.