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Look up, look wa-a-ay up. Men clutching binoculars on rooftops are treating voyeurism as an organized sport. They have their own rules and their own jargon ("There's a drip-dry going down on A-roof").

That's the creepy thesis of Peepers (2010), shot in English in Montreal and released this week on DVD. It's a testament to director-writer Seth W. Owen and co-writers Daniel Perlmutter and Mark Slutsky that what begins as sleazy grows rather affecting as the film progresses. The misfits who congregate on rooftops to spy on people undressing and copulating in their apartments are revealed as a complicated and even sympathetic bunch of men.

Peeping is, at first, a male sanctuary, but the mainspring of the film is the intrusion of a female teacher, Annette (Janine Theriault), who hopes to make her academic name by studying the peepers as if they were skittish woodland creatures. Her presence irks the peepers' unofficial leader, Steve (Joe Cobden), who abides by a strict code of peeper conduct (don't peep on exhibitionists, don't peep on the families of peepers) and resents sharing the limelight with an increasingly enthusiastic amateur.

There are parallel tales. In the most affecting sequence, a peeper is drawn to an exhibitionist in a window across the way. He rationalizes his hobby to his disapproving sister. "I'm not a pervert, Shelley. I'm an observer, a witness, a watcher from the shadows." Will he reach out to the woman opposite?

The three writers contribute an audio commentary, which, although heavier on aimless chatter than on information, yields a few nuggets. "It's amazing," one of them says. "When you make a film about peeping Toms, you realize how many of your friends are willing and eager to get in front of the camera and get naked, or show a little something at least."

Fun fact: A peeper named Helman, who spoils more than one rooftop outing when he fails to crouch down, is played by Tyrone Benskin. Benskin was elected in May as the NDP MP for the riding of Jeanne-Le Ber. There have been no sightings of him on the roof of the Parliament Buildings.

ALSO NEW THIS WEEK

Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)

So many tepid romantic comedies have occupied the screen in recent years that it's a real pleasure to find a smart, witty one with a great cast (Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei) given something to do. Bonuses on the DVD and Blu-ray include a goofy interview with Carell and Gosling. Gosling, on dating advice: "My dad did say that you can't wear enough cologne. I found that not to be true."

Tabloid (2010)

Talk about crazy, stupid love. Joyce McKinney, a former Miss Wyoming who found her dream guy in Salt Lake City, pursued Kirk Anderson to England, where he was among Mormons. As the tabloids told it in 1977, she kidnapped him, took him to a cottage in Devon, chained him to a bed and made love to him for days to break his Mormon spirit. McKinney tells it differently in this enthralling documentary by Errol Morris ( The Fog of War). Anderson, alas, declined to be interviewed.

His Way (2011)

There are few surprises in the way Jerry Weintraub's story is told in this 86-minute documentary directed by Douglas McGrath for HBO. The attraction is in the story itself, meted out in lively anecdotes by a personable and voluble Weintraub. The promoter-producer made his name by taking Elvis Presley on tour, showcased Frank Sinatra in a boxing ring at Madison Square Garden, married singer Jane Morgan and had his ups ( Nashville, Diner) and downs (bankruptcy) in Hollywood. Celebrities pitch in to say he's tough. Brad Pitt: "He doesn't hear 'no.'"

Cars 2 (2011)

A world populated entirely by talking cars, boats and planes remains an intrinsically dumb idea. Why would cars build an Eiffel Tower? But the computer-animated vehicles are back, this time forsaking the small-town setting of 2006's Cars for a racing tour of Japan, Paris and all points global. The focus is on the tow truck Mater, an acquired taste voiced by Larry the Cable Guy. The animation is superb. The story – did I mention it's an intrinsically dumb idea?

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