Released this week on DVD: "Outrage"

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is interviewed about gay politicians in Outrage

Grade: C+

Since his documentary on the peculiar tastes and hypocrisy of the Motion Picture Association of America rating system (easy on violence, harder on everything else), filmmaker Kirby Dick has upped his technical and design game. Outrage, in which Dick urges closeted politicians to quit the charade and own up to who they are, is a more artfully assembled documentary than the earlier This Film Is Not Yet Rated.

Yet Dick requires a little work on some fundamentals. A filmmaker, for example, may not be best served if his introductory titles assert the existence of a "brilliantly orchestrated conspiracy" on behalf of the government, the media and the nation’s culture to keep every nervous bisexual or gay politician living the lie. The film’s pretty good about saying why so much in the culture encourages a political life in the closet, either tacitly or directly. But even The Advocate had a problem with calling it a brilliantly orchestrated conspiracy.

The film’s primary targets are those Dick sees as double-standard-bearers, lawmakers of considerable political influence whose voting records belie a life many claim is being lived on the down-low. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is painted as anti-gay-legislation hypocrite No. 1, though Crist did not consent to an interview for the film.

James McGreevey, the New Jersey governor who came out at a news conference with his wife by his side, offers plenty of eloquent testimony about the tortured years before acknowledging his true self. Navigating the double life, commuting between parallel universes, he says, got to be like "a bad Star Trek episode."

The film spends too much time with blogger Michael Rogers (blogactive.com), whose outing efforts entered the mainstream media coverage. But the Log Cabin Republicans, embodying a number of different strains of …well, strain, are fascinating. The most arresting bit in Outrage comes from former Log Cabin head Rich Tafel, who came out years ago. Among certain circles — the film infers that our nation’s capitol is more fabulously (if secretively) gay than San Francisco, even — Tafel’s life as an openly gay politician is a sign of weakness. Some of the comments he says he’s heard boil down to: "You didn’t have the stamina to stay in the closet."