[Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead.]

NO JOKE: ABSURD COMEDY AS POLITICAL REALITY at the Museum of the Moving Image (through Nov. 16). The premise of this retrospective is that no political context is too dangerous or self-parodic for satire; as proof, it offers several films that found different ways of taking a torch to reality. In the case of “Starship Troopers” (on Saturday), both the film and the book versions were interpreted as endorsements of fascism. The Yes Men (who will appear at an event on Sunday) have made movies in which they punk real-world figures, while Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” (on Nov. 10) captures the amorality of financial-sector vampires in a druggy rush of fast-paced editing. In “Monsieur Verdoux” (on Nov. 17), Charlie Chaplin responded to the carnage of World War II by casting himself as a serial killer.

718-784-0077, movingimage.us

‘TORA-SAN, OUR LOVABLE TRAMP’ (‘IT’S TOUGH BEING A MAN’) at Film Forum (Oct. 11-17). The title character of this 1969 feature is one of the most popular figures in Japanese cinema — a blundering but sweet drifter played by Kiyoshi Atsumi in 48 features (said to be a record for an actor making appearances in one role). This is the first film in the series (directed, like most entries, by Yoji Yamada), which produced movies for nearly three decades. Japan Society lists two others on its schedule: “Tora-san’s Runaway,” on Nov. 1, and “Tora-san Meets His Lordship,” on Dec. 6.

212-727-8110, filmforum.org