Ty's movie picks for Friday November 13

(Tsai Ming-liang's "Face," at the HFA Saturday night)

The gifted Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang is in town this weekend at the Harvard Film Archive. He's best known in this country for the allusive and beautifully filmed "What Time is it There?" (2001) and "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" (2003), but the HFA series spotlights his lesser-known work and -- tomorrow (Saturday) at 7 p.m. -- his newest movie, "Face," which stars Fanny Ardant, Jean-Pierre Leaud, and the Louvre. The director will be present tonight (hurry!) and tomorrow night. Here's a nice thumbnail review of "Face" from Chris Kriofske of the Chlotrudis Society.

Uh-oh -- Friday the 13th comes on a Friday this month. (Tip of the hat to Churchy LaFemme for that one.) What better way to celebrate the unluckiest day of the year than watch Planet Earth swirl down the toilet in Roland Emmerich's disaster-o-rama "2012"?

Actually, I can think of plenty better ways, but this noisy, silly comic book of a movie does give you your money's worth in high-end apocalypse and the supporting players are a juicy bunch of hams. (Particularly Woody Harrelson parodying his crazed hemp-boy pop image and George Segal dusting the mothballs off his shoulders as a cruise ship entertainer. All that's missing is Helen Reddy as a guitar-playing nun.) Cusack is fine enough as the harried lead, but you want him to hoist this movie over his head the way Lloyd Dobler did that boombox, and it ain't happening.

That's a good description of what Philip Seymour Hoffman does with "Pirate Radio," an extremely colorful and rather shaggy chunk of Britpop history. His Royal Hoffman plays an American disc jockey on board a fictional version of one of the illegal radio station ships that broadcast rawk 'n' roll to England in the 1960s. Writer-director Richard Curtis seems more interested in tall tales than history and the movie goes on too long, even in this US version cut by at least 10 minutes from the original British release (titled "The Boat That Rocked"). Still, pretty good fun and unimpeachable soundtrack.

"The Maid" is definitely worth seeking out at the Coolidge -- A domestic-servant character sketch from Chile's Sebastián Silva that's ultra-creepy and strangely touching as it examines a Santiago housemaid (the fantastic Catalina Saavedra, a prize-winner at Sundance) undergoing a quiet psychotic break.

Also at the Coolidge -- and this weekend's pick hit -- is the loving tongue-in-cheek blaxploitation spoof "Black Dynamite," playing midnights today (Friday) and tomorrow, and every weekend through the month (and more, if it catches on). Warning: This movie contains Arsenio Hall.

Wesley really likes the dry art-world comedy drama "(untitled). I haven't seen it yet but I want to now. It's at the Kendall Square and the West Newton.

The Boston Jewish Film Festival wraps up this weekend, and "The Bicycle Thief" is at the Brattle in a new 35mm print. You haven't seen it? You should. One of the cornerstones in any moviegoer's education.