“In the Loop” is a whip-smart, razor-sharp political satire, shot documentary style, hilariously nasty, complete with characters who utter things like, “You sound like a (expletive deleted) Nazi Julie Andrews,” with a perfectly straight face.

And that’s one of the tamer lines.

This isn’t a film about politicans, per se, but about the people who handle politicians. And the people who handle the people who handle politicians. It’s government office drones, on either side of the pond, essentially trying to make sure their representatives don’t trip over their own feet.

The ball of whacktart hilarity gets rolling when London cabinet minister Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) puts his foot in his mouth during an interview, causing a political public relations hullaboo that just keeps getting more and more mucked up, even as he heads to Washington to try to clear the air.

The aides are smarter than the politicians themselves, especially in D.C., which apparently is being run by people who are barely old enough to drink and are “tripping over their umbilical cords,” says Peter Capaldi, who steals the show as Malcolm, a temperamental communications manager. He turns swearing into an art form. This movie is chock-full of creative uses of language that cannot be quoted here.

Indeed, dental-obsessed assistant secretary Karen Clark (Mimi Kennedy) can hardly walk a straight line without Liza (Anna Chlumsky), the type of 20-something political aide who will be running the world by the time she’s 35. Liza authors a polarizing paper that is leaked to the press and, in the words of a sychophantic rival aide, is “like a Harry Potter book, if Harry Potter made people really, really angry.”

The rapid-fire dialogue is one of the many reasons this film deserves better distribution than it’s gotten. The writing is razor-sharp. And the great ensemble cast isn’t overwhelmed by star power. The most familiar face to American audiences will likely be James Gandolfini as an insecure general-turned-politician.

Seemingly set in the days of Tony Blair and George Bush, the film may feel a tad outdated, but that doesn’t make it any less fantastic. It’s a good, smart laugh, with lots of details that can be, in the words of one character, “difficult, difficult, lemon difficult” to follow. If the old chestnut that plenty of people think a sense of humor is the most attractive quality, “In the Loop” is a great date movie, but don’t expect to spend 20 minutes making out in the back row and still be able to follow everything that’s going on.