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8
MONDAY
There’s really only one funny scene in Frank Novak’s white-trash farce Better Housekeeping. Let’s set it up: Don, an often-shirtless, beer-swilling action-figure dealer, keg-parties it up in celebration of the jerry-built wall that divides his house in twain, with his forklift-driving wife and her stick-in-the-mud lesbian lover on the other side. Caught between the fussin’ and feudin’ couple is their son, who crawls back and forth between sides via a doggie door. Every minute or so there’s a cut that shifts us forward in time as the drinking, whooping, and hollering stretches on for hours and hours. But each time the action returns, the music in the background is still “Free Bird,” cued to a slightly different spot. Well, it’s at least funnier than Joe Dirt. The film screens at 7:15 and 9:15 p.m. (see Showtimes for other dates) at the American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $8.50. (301) 495-6700. (Josh Levin)