It’s all for the glory of gluttony

Danielle Franco and Chris Kenneally’s documentary “Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating” looks at an obscure offshoots of the sporting life: gastronomical fortitude. Competitive eaters are those normally gargantuan men we see on ESPN each Fourth of July wolfing down large numbers of hot dogs. The film profiles Jason “Crazy Legs” Conti, an atypically trim eating machine, in his quest to join his heroes on stage at Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, the Super Bowl of competitive eating.

Conti, a dreadlocked New Yorker with a fondness for Hawaiian shirts, entered the world of competitive eating by slurping down a world record 34 dozen oysters in one sitting at a New Orleans oyster bar. A longtime fan of the annual Coney Island event, Conti began training for it by copying the style of Japanese master Takeru “the Tsunami” Kobayashi, a 131-pound wunderkind who dunks the hot dog buns in water and once consumed 50 1/2 dogs in 12 minutes.

Featuring a supporting cast whose requisite nicknames sound like minor characters on “The Sopranos” or 19th century baseball players -- “Mo Ribs” Molinsky, “Badlands” Booker, “Hungry” Charles Hardy, Ed “Cookie” Jarvis, Ray “the Bison” Meduna and “Crawfish” Nick Stipelcovich -- this is a deadpan funny film with a subject who is serious about his food. The self-effacing Conti makes an amiable star as he chases his absurdist dream while avoiding what the International Federation of Competitive Eating euphemistically refers to as “an urge contrary to swallowing.”

‘Red Lights’

Based on a novel by Georges Simenon, French director Cedric Kahn’s “Red Lights” takes highway horror and road rage in a brutal direction within an intensely well-acted thriller starring Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Carole Bouquet. Antoine and Helene, a quarrelsome middle-aged couple, leave Paris at the start of a weekend heading south to pick up their children from summer camp, and Antoine begins to drink before they even start their journey. Once they do, the roads are packed with vacationers, and tensions between the pair quickly heat up.

At one of Antoine’s stops to have yet another a drink, Helene threatens to take the train the rest of way and stubbornly remains in the car. When an angry, drunken Antoine gets back to the car he finds that she is gone. Antoine’s night worsens, devolving into a rural “After Hours,” as Kahn fills the remainder of the film with sinister suspense and some surprising turns. Darroussin, with his permanently furrowed brow, is excellent as a frustrated Gallic everyman twisted into knots by his fears.

‘Unknown Soldier’

Left alone when his father unexpectedly dies, 18-year-old Ellison (Carl Louis) -- L to his friends -- finds himself alone on the streets of Harlem in Ferenc Toth’s subtle drama, “Unknown Soldier.” It’s frightening how quickly someone with no family can fall through the cracks, and L is soon homeless after running out of places to crash. Pushed to desperation, he turns to the one person offering him a chance, a gangster named Zee (Postell Pringle), leading L to face some tough choices about his life.

Toth, who produced Eric Eason’s acclaimed “Manito,” makes his feature directing debut with an almost documentary feel for the characters and the neighborhood. Louis makes an impressive film acting debut, hiding L’s fears and anger behind a melancholy smile that gradually fades as the community fails him.

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Los Angeles Film Festival

Selected Screenings

* “Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating,” 4:30 p.m. today, 9:45 p.m. Monday, Laemmle’s Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., L.A. (866) 345-6337, www.lafilmfest.com

* “Unknown Soldier,” 7:15 p.m. Sunday, Laemmle’s Sunset 5; 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Laemmle’s Playhouse 7, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena

* “Red Lights,” 7 p.m. Monday, Laemmle’s Town Center 5, 17200 Ventura Blvd., Encino; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd., L.A