Parents' Guide to Four Lions

For a studio to fund a comedy about terrorists, they'd have to be certain it's going to walk one of cinema's thinnest lines and not succumb to any of the pitfalls too countless to mention. But with Four Lions, Britain's sharpest, most surreal satirist, Christopher Morris treads that line triumphantly, seamlessly delivering both a constantly laugh-out-loud comedy and a heartbreaking, chilling terrorist thriller. The cast are incredible, with leads Ahmed and Kayvan Novak both giving very different powerhouse performances. Waj (Novak) verges on ridiculous in his lack of comprehension, but his lost look is packed with pathos. Meanwhile, more intelligent family man, Omar (Ahmed) is utterly chilling, as he calmly discusses the moment he'll die in a suicide attack with his supportive wife and young son.

The twisted ideology of the jihadists is toxic, garbled garbage that plays in contrast to the Islamic characters' beliefs. But their actions are never downplayed as anything but deadly. The Western culture that helped spawn these ideas is also shown up, as is the clueless, out of touch British government and the police. The hilarious movie breezes by. But masterfully woven beneath the surface is a thick and complex web of ideas and searing commentary. It looks great, too. Morris mixes long 1970s zooms worthy of Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation with handheld shots, CCTV footage, and night vision, to create a heady ride that's static and steady, then explosive and, sadly, hyper-real. A modern classic, if only to show that no subject is off limits, if tackled the right way.