Even if he reminds us of an 18th-century writer in the Voltaire vein, Gore Vidal was one of the past century’s great minds. The fact that he turned his laserlike expat attentions to America’s past as his beloved country turned ever rightward was no coincidence. His life as charming curmudgeon (“When he sees a wound, he doesn’t heal it—he jabs it!” says one contemporary) and forthrightly gay iconoclast is recounted well in this compelling assemblage of interviews, archival footage, and snippets of accumulated history that validate Vidal’s view of the U.S. as a punch-drunk, teetering giant.

Cinematheque, September 27 (12:15 p.m.), and October 3 (1:15 p.m.), 8 (9 p.m.), and 11 (4:45 p.m.).