AFI FILM FEST: THE FINAL WEEK

T he following are capsule reviews of this week’s screenings at the AFI Film Festival of Los Angeles. Screenings take place at the Los Feliz Theater, 1822 N. Vermont Ave., Hollywood, except where noted. Tickets and information: (213) 520-2000 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. TUESDAY

“Playing Away” (Great Britain, 1986, 9:30 p.m.). Director Horace Ove’s insightful comedy pictures the layers of reaction--on both sides--when a championship team of West Indian cricketers from London is invited to the small English village of Sneddington for a friendly match with the locals. (It’s the climax of Sneddington’s Third World week, y’see.) The film’s look at the racial and social layers of England today doesn’t come up to “My Beautiful Laundrette,” and it may take a bit before your ears adjust to the mellifluous accents, but it’s smashingly well-played, and the game of cricket never seemed more daftly suited to comedy nor to social comment. Recommended.