After the Lights Go Down

*GAY REPUBLICANS(USA)

Director Wash Westmoreland (The Fluffer) returns with a timely, riveting look at queer Republicans and the anguish some have suffered under the gay-baiting Bush administration. Even more fascinating than those who’ve been hurt by Bush’s homophobic pandering are those who not only defend it, but take part in it. The film follows four individuals (a lesbian businesswoman, a former Mormon, a West Hollywood Reaganite and a Palm Beach hairstylist) as they come to terms with their political affiliation in relation to their sexual orientation. You may grind your teeth into dust watching the self-hating contortions into which some of them proudly fold themselves. (ArcLight 12, Thurs., Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m.; ArcLight 10, Sat., Nov. 13, 1 p.m.) (EH)

*BLACKBALLED: THE BOBBY DUKES STORY (USA)

First-time writer-director Brant Sersen assembles a talented cast around Rob Corddry (TV’s The Daily Show) as a disgraced paintball hero, with members of New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade comedy troupe as the motley crew he bands together to mount his comeback. Set in the lowbrow mid-America of Dodgeball and the Farrellys, this mockumentary nevertheless stays closer to the improvisational takes of Christopher Guest. If Sersen never hits the Guestian high mark, and Corddry’s deadpan grin refuses to translate to the big screen, there are still some funny moments from Rob Riggle’s sociopath and Rob Huebel as Dukes’ supercilious rival. (ArcLight 10, Thurs., Nov. 11, 10 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 13, 4 p.m.) (JS)

VOODOO, MOUNTED BY THE GODS(Benin/Germany/Switzerland)

Photojournalist Alberto Venzago risked life and limb (and, presumably, having his head shrunk) over the 10 years that he filmed the people of West Africa’s Mawu-Lissa cult. However, despite Venzago’s intimate access to his subjects, his movie exudes the repugnant exoticism of such ethnographic “shockumentaries” as Mondo Cane and Shocking Asia, right down to the way all the color has been drained out of the images, save for the bright red of gushing blood. (ArcLight 13, Thurs., Nov. 11, 10 p.m.; ArcLight 11, Fri., Nov. 12, 9:30 p.m.) (SF)

 

*THE GREAT WATER (Republic of Macedonia)

Ivo Trajkov’s beautifully shot tale of a brutal orphanage reeducating children in Tito’s Yugoslavia recalls both the hallucinatory child’s view of The Tin Drum and the morally charged realism of Krzysztof Kieslowski. Water tells its story through flashback, as politician Lem Nikodonski falls into a coma, revisiting his youth in the home and his friendship with the mysterious, charismatic fellow student Isaac. The film tempers its Orwellian theme of truth as a last refuge from totalitarianism with moments of moonlit magic and gleeful absurdity — an injured boy returns bandaged like a mummy, while a pair of red exercise shorts becomes a highly charged symbol of the brave new world of Tito and Stalin. (ArcLight 12, Fri., Nov. 12, 7:15 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 13, 1:30 p.m.) (JS)

*TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE (USA)

In this documentary about Haskell Wexler, the famed cinematographer’s son, Mark, pays tribute to his father’s career while simultaneously wrestling with the public and private personalities of a man he feels he hardly knows. The result is a revealing and balanced portrait of the artist as irascible autodidact, committed social crusader and deeply flawed father figure. Michael Douglas, Martin Sheen and a radiant Jane Fonda are among those who join in the discussion on both filmmaking and child-rearing matters, with a particularly fascinating segment devoted to Wexler’s direction of the Fonda-produced Vietnam documentary Introduction to the Enemy. (ArcLight 10, Fri., Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m.) (SF)

MALACHANCE (Mexico/USA)

Writer-director Gerardo Naranjo’s debut wears its influences on its sleeve, from the loving tracking shots of a faded New Orleans that seem to come straight from Jim Jarmusch’s Down By Law, to Robert Phelps’ Lynchian turn as The Dutch, a small-time crime boss for whom the dour Mika (James Ransone) runs drugs. But just when the film seems settled into a rote Mean Streets homage, Mika gets out of the game, heading for Coney Island and a fresh chance. The New York scenes are gentler, less anxious, revealing hidden depths in Ransone and featuring a sweet turn from Nancy Anne Ridder as a big-hearted coworker. (ArcLight 13, Fri., Nov. 12, 9:45 p.m.; Sun., Nov. 14, noon) (JS)

*A LEAGUE OF ORDINARY GENTLEMEN (USA)

This slick documentary reminds us early on that “more Americans bowled last year than voted.” Often affectionate, sometimes (intentionally and otherwise) veering into parody — a few of the husband-and-wife teams act suspiciously like couples in a Christopher Guest film — League moves from a deftly cut archival history of bowling as the first great televised sport (lots of good mullet footage here), through its decline in the ’90s, to recent attempts by the Professional Bowlers Association and its Machiavellian CEO, Steve Miller, to revive the sport. Following four bowlers with very different backgrounds and styles, director Christopher Browne builds tension for the climactic duel. (ArcLight 12, Fri., Nov. 12, 9:45 p.m.; ArcLight 10, Sun., Nov. 14, 3 p.m.) (JS)

*INFERNAL AFFAIRS TRILOGY (Hong Kong)

Seeing these three almost too-ingenious deep-cover thrillers back-to-back and on the big screen is probably the best way to absorb them — at least before Martin Scorsese condenses them into one for a projected 2006 release. The first installment, directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, is a masterful set of variations on a diabolically clever premise: the long-distance rivalry between two undercover moles. Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai, from In the Mood for Love) plays a cop posing as a Triad gangster, while Ming (Andy Lau Tat-wah) is a Triad gangster posing as a cop. During one very long night, the existence of both moles is revealed — but not their identities. However deliciously twisty the plot gets, we never lose sight of the moral ambiguities that haunt these characters, their staunch though opposed codes of loyalty and duty versus their day-to-day lives, founded on deceit. I.A. 2 (2003) is a prequel in which Edison Chen and Shawn Yue (introduced in I.A. 1) take over as green young versions of Ming and Yan, whom they do not at all resemble, as we follow the more straightforward story of their recruitment and corruption. I.A. 3 (2003) is in some respects the masterpiece of the series, as one of the moles from I.A. 1 desperately strives to redeem himself in a battle of wits with a fast-rising cool-shark investigator (Leon Lai Mai). It’s a virtuoso interweaving of past, future and near-present timelines, in which crucial events are sandwiched in between those of the earlier two chapters. Thriller-genre contrivances are so layered and braided here that they achieve an almost abstract level of perfection. (Infernal Affairs 1: ArcLight 12, Sat., Nov. 13, 4:45 p.m.; ArcLight 12, Sun., Nov. 14, 1:30 p.m.Infernal Affairs 2: ArcLight 12, Sat., Nov. 13, 4:45 p.m.; ArcLight 12, Sun., Nov. 14, 1:30 p.m. Infernal Affairs 3: ArcLight 12, Sat., Nov. 13, 9:30 p.m.; ArcLight 12, Sun., Nov. 14, 7 p.m.) (DC)