Ty's movie picks for Friday, August 10

Terrific series of classic Italian films starring classic Italian beauties and jolie laides starts today at the MFA, beginning with Anna Magnani in "Bellissima" tonight and including Pasolini's "Teorema," starring Sylvia Mangano (in photo above). The series runs until Sept. 9.

I know, I know, you're sick to death of the mess in Iraq. Your head hurts just thinking about it. Well, it should, shouldn't it? Charles Ferguson's "No End in Sight" lays out the how and why more concisely than any documentary yet, and he talks to all the right people. A must-see, at the Kendall.

The other four-star review this morning is for Shane Meadows' "This is England," also at the Kendall, a galvanizing account of a boy's involvement with the skinheads in 1983 England. See it for the performance of 12-year-old Thomas Turgoose in the lead: he looks like Winston Churchill re-engineered as a tweenage thug.

Another fine look at childhood can be found in "Summercamp!" at the Brattle, a documentary about... well, you figure it out. It's a loosey-goosey experience that'll have you wondering why you're giving it the time of day until revelations about some of the kids suddenly deepen the film. Both "This is England" and "Summercamp!" are leagues superior to the plastic inanities of "Daddy Day Camp," but that one's in thousands of theaters and stands to make the most money. Ready, get depressed.... NOW.

Those wacky programmers at the Coolidge are offering a rap sing-a-long tonight at 11:55. At the Harvard Film Archive there's a rare chance to see Howard Hawks' "Hatari!" on the big screen tonight -- John Wayne and giraffes! -- plus a kickass double-bill tomorrow of Buster Keaton in "The Cameraman" and the surprisingly risque 1934 "Tarzan and His Mate."