Capsule Reviews of AFI Film Festival

Following are capsule reviews of a selection of the screenings today and Sunday at the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival at the Cineplex Odeon Cenutry Plaza Cinemas.

SUNDAY

‘Lords of the Streets’

Ivory Coast/France, 1988, 89 minutes 6:45 p.m. Living beyond one’s means predictably leads to crime and punishment in this entertaining, but slight, morality tale out of black Africa. Returning home to the Ivory Coast after a brief life of luxury in France, with an upwardly mobile wife--among other women--to support, the weak hero gets caught up in a white-led prostitution and robbery ring. One of Africa’s biggest stars, Sijiri Bakaba, turns to writing and directing here with subtlety, style and a sense of humor--evidenced by his own amusingly decadent supporting role as an out-of-control drunkard.