A still from 'I Love You Phillip Morris.' (Image courtesy of Europa Corp.)

Closing on Sunday is “We The People,” an exhibit by Scott Brooks at Long View Gallery.

If you have a taste for pop sensibility framed with a dark vision of the current American political scene and nude or nearly nude male physiques, see this exhibit, “We The People,” 12 new oil paintings by D.C. artist Scott G. Brooks in the few remaining days before it closes on Sunday at Long View Gallery, 1234 9th St., N.W.

Drew Porterfield, gay managing director of the gallery, says that Brooks’ work “reflects the political and economic turmoil that takes up the head space of those who are paying attention.” One of his paintings even depicts Fox News commentator and Tea Party advocate Glenn Beck in the altogether, sporting only strategically placed patriotic bunting. Brooks calls Beck “a fake messiah distracting people” from the real issues that surround them.

But Brooks is not much more enthused with President Obama. In the title piece of the show, “We The People,” a 48-by-30-inch oil on canvas, “Brooks’ disillusionment with Washington is central,” says Porterfield about the work depicting a snake-charmer who distracts his followers as his head is illuminated by a Christ-like halo, a possible comment on religion, as what Karl Marx once called “the opiate of the people.”

The gallery is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. Call 202-232-4788 or visit longviewgallery.com.

New gay-themed films to debut

Opening at area theaters on Friday, Dec. 3, the long-delayed “I Love You, Philip Morris,” a comedy starring actors Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as gay lovers who meet in prison and then are separated and reunited through a series of joke-filled jail-breaks and impersonations.

“Mary Lou,” a modern-day fable by Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox, featuring Tel Aviv’s famous drag queen Meir/Mary Lou, playing at 9:15 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4 as part of the 21st Washington Jewish Film Festival, at the 16th St., N.W., D.C. Jewish Community Center.

“Undertow,” a 2009 Peruvian blend of gay love story and ghost story by writer-director Javier Fuentes-Leon, already selected as Peru’s entry for the 2010 Academy Awards — the “buzz-film” at the San Francisco LGBT Film Festival — will be shown at the DC JCC at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10 as part of the Reel Affirmations “R.A. Extra” monthly series of LGBT films.

‘Cave of Crystals’

This is the first time that Lia Halloran, photographer, painter and professor in Los Angeles, has worked with Sarah Strauss, a Brooklyn-based architect, though they bonded years ago as graduate students at Yale University over how nature and science could sometimes intersect with art. Their joint exhibit — “Folding Unfolding: Collider” — is on exhibit at the new Artisphere in Rosslyn’s repurposed old Newseum Building, 1101 Wilson Blvd, through Jan 12.

Collider is the name of their new collaborative group whose work is “all built by girls!” The exhibit includes what appears at first to be large crystals though they are in fact made out of a light-weight wood composite using 3D digital modeling techniques.  Their inspiration came from the discovery some 10 years ago in Mexico of underground, half-a-million-year-old crystals, some of them as large as 37 feet long.

Another Halloran exhibit is also now at the Artisphere, a photographic series called “Dark Skate” — photos she took while skateboarding in the dark.

For more information, call 703-875-1100 or go here.

Arlington is for all lovers

Also at the Artisphere in Rosslyn, the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance (AGLA) invites the public at no charge to be part of a video shoot on Saturday, Dec. 4 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., hosted by drag entertainer Destiny B. Childs. The finished video, inspired by a video of LGBT people in Paris embracing, will premiere at the Artisphere on Dec. 20. The tagline will be “Arlington is for all lovers.”

For more information or to volunteer, go here.