Freeze Frame

Kevin Costner and Diane Lane play a retired couple who attempt to rescue their grandson from a rural North Dakota family in the harrowing drama “Let Him Go,” based on a novel by Larry Watson. Leslie Manville memorably chews the scenery as the cultish family’s domineering matriarch. Violent and a bit lurid, “Let Him Go” plays a bit like a neo-Western and is a well-acted and unsettling revenge thriller.   If a Disney Channel movie married a Hallmark holiday romcom, the offspring might look a bit like the middling flick, “Operation Christmas Drop.” Kat Graham plays a Congressional aide who tries to pull the rug out from under Air Force Captain Alexander Ludwig and his Guam-based charitable efforts. It’s meant to be inspiring, but “Operation Christmas Drop” is a bland, slow moving and formulaic romantic comedy.   “The Informer” is a brutal thriller starring Joel Kinneman as an FBI informant who infiltrates a savage Polish drug gang. Things get tricky when Joel gets sent to prison. FBI agents Rosamund Pike and Clive Owen cut him loose and he must figure out how to fend for himself. The story is overly familiar and takes some twists and turns that stretch credibility,…

If you took a typical Hallmark Channel Christmas romantic comedy and added in plenty foul language and crude sexual banter, you might come up with something like the off-putting Netflix offering, “Holidate.” Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey star in the story of two singles who decide to use one another as a non-intimate date on holidays only. The game cast tries hard to find something resembling reality, but mostly come up empty. Watching “Holidate” is no holiday.   “His House” is a genuinely creepy and thoughtful horror film with a timely political and sociological backdrop. Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu play a couple from South Sudan who flee the violence in their homeland and seek refuge in the British Isles. Once they arrive in England, however, they realize that an evil supernatural entity has followed them. There’s a lot more going on than meets the eye in this sharp debut feature from writer/director Remi Weeks. “His House” will provoke and disturb viewers in equal measure.   “The Craft: Legacy” is a sequel to the 1996 pop horror film about a coven of teenage witches. Cailee Spaeny plays a teen who befriends three girls seeking powers of the occult, they conjure…

“Rebecca,” a Netflix remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic suspense drama is a handsomely produced but uninspired adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel. Armie Hammer and Lily James star in this dark gothic romance that checks all of the appropriate boxes but can’t match the 1940 Best Picture Oscar winner, which can be seen for free at any time on YouTube.   “The Witches” is yet another remake, this one based on Roald Dahl’s scary children’s story. Anne Hathaway and Octavia Spencer lead the cast in this tale of a boy who discovers that a coven of witches plans to turn kids into mice. Hathaway’s over-the-top performance is bound to creep out the kiddies in this capable if overstuffed production.   After fourteen years, Sacha Baron Cohen returns as a faux Kazakhstani TV reporter in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” In this shocking mockumentary, Borat ambushes the clueless Rudy Giuliani among others. It’s shameless, irreverent and uneven, but succeeds in lampooning contemporary hypocrisy.   Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan star in the philosophical sci-fi entry, “Synchronic.” Mackie plays a paramedic, dying of cancer, who discovers that a street drug enables the user to travel through time. While this thoughtful film raises interesting questions,…

Oscar-winning filmmaker Aaron Sorkin offers one of the year’s finest movies, “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” This surprisingly timely drama covers the infamous case in which peace activists were tried for allegedly inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Sasha Baron Coen, Eddie Redmayne and Mark Rylance are part of a great cast that skillfully delivers Sorkin’s sharp, incisive dialogue. The movie’s pace is very lively and it’s unusually funny for a historical courtroom drama. The verdict on “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is ‘compelling,’ beyond a reasonable doubt.’   “Clouds” is a Disney+ drama that tells the true story of Zach Sobiech, a teenager suffering from terminal cancer who released the hit song “Clouds” a few months before his death in 2013. Actor/musician Fin Argus fits the role of Sobiech like a glove and the earnest cast helps mitigate some of the movie’s manipulative aspects. “Clouds” is a four-hankie tearjerker.  Thankfully, the pathos is somewhat balanced by the movie’s upbeat humor.   “The Secrets We Keep” is a modestly effective post WWII thriller. Noomi Rapace plays a Romanian woman living in a small American town who thinks she recognizes a German soldier who committed brutal war…

Bill Murray re-teams with “Lost in Translation” filmmaker Sophia Coppola for the disarming comedy, “On the Rocks.” Rashida Jones plays a woman who fears her husband, played by Marlon Wayans, may be cheating on her. Her pushy ne’er do well father, played by Murray, manipulates her into spying on her spouse. There’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye, making “On the Rocks” a sly, engaging and loving look at family dynamics.   “The Forty-Year-Old Version” may be the year’s biggest surprise. Acclaimed playwright Radha Banks plays herself in this autobiographical movie about a struggling theater artist who tries her hand at rap. Whip smart and often hilarious, it’s an eye-opening exposé of racism and ageism in the liberal New York performing arts scene. This very adult film has brazen language and content that will make it radioactive for many, but if you can get past the barrage of dirty words, “The Forty-Year-Old Version” will be a welcome introduction to a charismatic talent.   “Yellow Rose” is a charming coming-of-age movie about a Philippine-American teenager who faces possible deportation while trying to break into the Austin country music scene. Broadway star Eva Noblezada makes an impressive movie…

The life of feminist icon Gloria Steinem is given the art house treatment in Julie Taymor’s overambitious biography, “The Glorias.” Four actresses play Steinem in various stages of her life, including Oscar winners Alicia Vikander and Julianne Moore. While it’s illuminating and relevant, the film skims the surface while indulging in some unnecessary and pretentious sequences of surrealism. Still, “The Glorias” is a modestly involving experiment.   “The Boys in the Band” is a Netflix adaptation of the famous 1968 Broadway play about a birthday party amongst a group of gay men that devolves into an ugly session of self-loathing and bickering. Jim Parsons leads a strong cast in this wicked comic drama that isn’t nearly as shocking as it would have been 50 years ago, but still packs a punch.   The documentary “Herb Alpert Is” provides a sweeping overview of the life of the phenomenally successful musician, artist, philanthropist and founder of A&M Records. For those unfamiliar with his work, it’s an involving primer. For those old enough to remember the heyday of the Tijuana Brass, it’s downright nostalgic.   “A Call to Spy” is a WWII drama about England’s spy agency that sent women to Nazi occupied…

If nothing else, you’ll have to admit that the comic drama “Kajillionaire” is not the same old thing. This quirky and gentle movie stars Evan Rachel Wood as an emotionally stunted young woman who works as a petty scam artist with her parents, Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger. Things get complicated when they invite a stranger, played by Gina Rodriguez, into one of their schemes. “Kajillionaire” has a sweet and eccentric vibe that viewers will find either refreshing or annoying. In either case, “Kajillionaire” unique.   Millie Bobbi Brown of “Stranger Things” fame is terrific as Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister in the lighthearted Netflix mystery thriller, “Enola Holmes.” When her mom disappears, Enola attempts to find her by deciphering clues her tricky mother left behind. The story is told with a wink and a nod and never really amounts to much, but Brown carries the day in “Enola Holmes,” the probable first installment of a wannabe franchise.   “Secret Society of Second Born Royals” is a Disney+ fantasy aimed at preteens. It seems that some folks with royal blood have unusual superpowers and they’re recruited to save their kingdoms from an evil villain. It’s very pat and predictable, but the…

Pop superstar and Kansas City native Janelle Monáe stars in “Antebellum,” a bizarre horror entry with significant social overtones. Monáe plays a slave on a plantation in the Civil War South…or is she a renowned author living today? This well acted but enigmatic film doesn’t make much sense until the final scenes when the film starts to look like a project that M. Night Shyamalan might have started…and rejected.   Sitting through the Netflix drama “The Devil All the Time,” based on the novel by Donald Ray Pollock, may be a certified form of torture. The beautifully acted and lensed drama stars Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson in a sweeping story spanning two generations dealing with religiously conflicted rednecks in post- WWII rural Ohio. It’s unrelentingly ugly and violent, filled with loathsome characters. “The Devil All the Time” falls well short of its lofty thematic aims.   Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslett and Sam Neill lead a potent cast in the talky family drama, “Blackbird.” Dying of ALS, Sarandon decides to get the family together for one last sendoff before she commits suicide. It’s hard to knock the cast and the filmmakers’ intent, but the dialogue goes over like fingernails on…

“The Broken Hearts Gallery” is a cute, maybe too cute romantic comedy for millennials that exists in an otherworldly rom-com dimension. Geraldine Viswanathan plays a young woman who saves mementos from her many failed romances and turns them into a gallery exhibit. Can she ever find true love? What do you think? The cast is affable and there are some hearty laughs, although the amusing dialogue often sounds like it’s all coming from the same voice.   Seventies pop music star Helen Reddy gets the biopic treatment in “I Am Woman.” Australian actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey plays the singer who went through many personal struggles before hitting it big and writing the number one hit “I Am Woman” that became the anthem for the women’s movement. It’s slickly produced and features many of Reddy’s hit songs, but it suffers somewhat due to its formulaic and melodramatic execution. The feminist angle of “I Am Woman” may, however, strike a chord with viewers in the “Me Too” era.   “All In: The Fight for Democracy” is a compelling documentary about contemporary voter suppression efforts in the run-up to the 2020 Presidential election. A number of expert talking heads weigh in on the subject…

Christopher Nolan’s mind-boggling sci-fi action thriller “Tenet” begs to be seen on the big screen. It also begs to have subtitles. While it’s involving and visually dazzling, the confounding time-inversion plotline is further muddled by an obtrusive soundtrack and heavy accents. John David Washington and Kevin Branagh do an impressive job of navigating their tricky roles. “Tenet” is virtuoso filmmaking and frustrating storytelling in equal measure.   “Mulan,” the live-action, non-musical adaptation of its 1998 animated hit is now on Disney+. Liu Yifei takes the title role of a Chinese girl who poses as a man to enter the Imperial Army and defend against Northern invaders in 620AD. It’s a beautifully produced and involving action fantasy, with considerably more violence than we’re used to seeing from Disney. Little girls everywhere will be inspired.   Charlie Kaufman, Hollywood’s most acclaimed eccentric stays true to form with the mind-bending and soul-chilling metaphysical horror film, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.” A young woman travels to her boyfriend’s childhood farm to meet the parents, which serves as an excuse for Kaufman to comment on a number of existential subjects. Jessie Buckley is nothing short of brilliant in a movie brimming with terrific performances. It’s…