Two of this year’s best comedies, now out on DVD, rely on talk rather than sight gags or visual humour or general goofiness for their laughs. And while the latter qualities are not to be put down, smart dialogue-based humour is somewhat of a rarity on the big screen these days. The characters in Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop chatter at each other constantly: they cajole, persuade, demean, seduce and verbally body-check each other. It’s dialogue with the pace of an action movie.

The standout talker has got to be Peter Capaldi, who plays a British government PR handler who swings into action when a minister (Tom Hollander) misspeaks during a radio interview. The government is building up to an unnamed war in the Middle East (I hope you’ll be able to guess which one), and Hollander’s gaffe threatens to upset the apple cart. Soon the Americans are brought in, including James Gandolfini as a general who’s actively against the conflict, and the war of words becomes trans-Atlantic. Though, technically, all of the characters are on the same side—you never even hear from any members of the opposition parties. (This strife is strictly internecine.) A very fast, very funny, and at times very profane movie with hands-down the year’s best swearing.

The other chatty comedy would be Lynn Shelton’s Humpday. Mark Duplass (also known as a filmmaker in the “mumblecore” style) and Joshua Leonard (who pops up for pretty much the first time since Blair Witch—remember him?) play two old pals who dare each other into making an amateur porno. And by making a porno, they mean making one together, though they both happen to be straight. The film’s climactic scene, where the two men meet in a hotel room and try and steel themselves up for the big deed, is a brilliantly funny dissection of male self-confidence and rationalization. It’s truly awkward and hilarious and definitely one of the year’s best comedy sequences.