I love a double feature on a rainy weekday afternoon (and we certainly had plenty of those earlier in the week), especially when both movies are radically different but each equally satisfying.  Or, each is almost equally satisfying.

Audrey Tautou is convincing as a young Coco Chanel in a biopic of the designer’s life up to the point when she starts making a name for herself in the world of haute couture.  Coco Before Chanel is lush to look at and engaging, though the middle section of the narrative is mildly repetitive.  Still playing in the Triad.

In The Loop succeeds as a very funny (but disconcerting) look at foreign policy and how wars can be facilitated by mid-level bureaucrats, how opportunistic those officials and their flaks can be, and how careers and policy are intertwined.  Sound tedious?  It’s anything but.  This movie closed in the Triad on Thursday, so you might want to look for it in coming months on DVD.