Freeze Frame

Nia Long and Omar Epps star in the predictable and overly familiar Netflix thriller, “Fatal Affair.” Long plays a lawyer who becomes the unwilling object of obsession for the smart but psychologically disturbed Epps. While shamefully derivative, the earnest performances from Long and Epps make “Fatal Affair” a moderately tense little time waster. Search the words “Fatal” and “Affair” and you’ll fi...

“Greyhound” is a fast-paced WWII Naval battle flick starring and written by Tom Hanks. He plays the captain of a destroyer assigned to escort commercial vessels through parts of the Atlantic teeming with Nazi subs. The tension is derived from cat-and-mouse skirmishes with invisible enemies. While no dog, “Greyhound” is at best a modest, workmanlike thriller.   Charlize Theron is the best thing abo...

“Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop history lesson about a founding father may be the most unlikely hit musical of all time. The Disney+ ‘live capture’ version of the original Broadway production more than lives up to the hype. While no filmed play can capture the electricity of a live performance, “Hamilton” comes close. Miranda and director Thomas Kail present Alexander Hamilton’s warts-and...

Comedian and commentator Jon Stewart steps behind the camera for the second time with the political satire, “Irresistible.” Steve Carell stars as a big time Democratic strategist who gets involved in a small-town mayoral race. The oversized role of money in politics is the movie’s main target. While it generates some laughs, “Irresistible” lacks the depth and bite needed to make it an effective el...

If a claustrophobic thriller is what you’re looking for, the airline hijack movie “7500” fills the bill. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a mild-mannered pilot fending off terrorists wielding glass knives. All of the action takes place in the  plane’s cockpit. Gordon-Levitt is solid and the filmmakers strive for realism over melodrama. While tense and well made, “7500” is unnerving and about as enjoy...

Oscar winners Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott reunite for an intriguing and timely drama, “Da 5 Bloods.” This Netflix movie is about aging African American Vietnam vets who return to that country to retrieve the remains of a fallen brother and a fortune in gold they left behind. Delroy Lindo and Chadwick Boseman lead a solid cast and the movie provides a new perspective on the war. While it’s involvi...

As our local cinemas are still temporarily closed, this week’s Freeze Frame will concentrate on NEW movies that can be streamed at home. Elisabeth Moss, easily one of the best actresses working today, turns in yet another impressive portrayal the drama “Shirley.” This fictionalized biopic focuses on a difficult period in the life of acclaimed horror author Shirley Jackson, best-known for her stori...

In the new Netflix romantic comedy “The High Note” Dakota Johnson portrays the hardworking assistant of a famous and demanding pop star. Tracee Ellis Ross plays the music diva in a role that might -or might not- be inspired by her famous mom, Diana Ross. Ice Cube is the hard-as-nails manager. “The High Note” is a lighthearted bit of froth that bears little resemblance to reality, but is a painless...

The last time that actor Kumail Nanjiani teamed with director Michael Showalter, the result was the brilliant and moving 2017 comic drama, “The Big Sick.” Their new collaboration, “The Lovebirds,” is a Netflix romantic comedy-slash-action flick that isn’t nearly as successful. Nanjiani and Issa Rae play a couple in a tenuous relationship whose bickering takes a back seat when circumstances throw t...

Tom Hardy’s gonzo performance is the main draw for “Capone,” now available on Amazon Prime. This experimental movie concentrates on the last hellish year of the infamous mobster’s life when he was suffering from dementia and his body was wracked with syphilis. Did he actually hide millions in cash? That’s what his family, associates and the FBI wanted to know. So did he. The storyline meanders and...

“Becoming” is a new Netflix documentary featuring former First Lady Michelle Obama. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at her 2018 34-city book tour promoting her memoir, “Becoming.” The film consists of snippets from her appearances at sold-out arenas, mixed with interview clips, scenes from her meetings with community organizations, book signings and occasional personal asides.   While the film doesn...

As our local cinemas are still temporarily closed, this week’s Freeze Frame will concentrate on NEW movies that can be streamed at home.   Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney give terrific performances in the strange but true HBO film, “Bad Education.” Jackman plays a popular Long Island school superintendent who was in charge when millions in district dollars went missing. “Bad Education” is a darkly...

Chris Hemsworth is a conflicted action hero in the excessively violent Netflix thriller, “Extraction.” Hemsworth plays a super skillful mercenary who is hired to rescue the kidnapped son of an Indian gangster who has been spirited off to Bangladesh. Heralded stuntman Sam Hargrave makes his directorial debut and brings some jaw-dropping stunt sequences to vivid life, placing them in exotic, unfamil...

The Netflix original drama “Tigertail” is a low-key family drama about a strained father-daughter relationship. Chinese-American actor Tzi Ma, who may be best known for his recent role in “The Farewell,” plays Grover, an immigrant from Taiwan who can’t seem to make an emotional connection with his adult daughter Angela, played by Kristine Ko. In a series of flashbacks, we learn of the difficult de...

As our local cinemas are still temporarily closed, this week’s Freeze Frame will concentrate on new movies that can be streamed at home.   “Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always” now available through video on demand platforms like Amazon Prime, is one of those quiet human dramas that critics rave about and general audiences often scratch their heads over. This low-key, hyper-realistic film is a heartb...

As our local cinemas are still temporarily closed, this week’s Freeze Frame will concentrate on new movies that can be streamed at home. The raunchy Netflix original comedy “Coffee & Kareem” is shamefully wrong-headed and beneath the talent and dignity of its able cast. Ed Helms plays Officer James Coffee, a bungling Detroit cop who’s dating a nurse, played by Taraji P. Henson. The merry mix-u...

Since most of our local cinemas are temporarily closed, this week’s Freeze Frame will focus on three “feel good” films currently available to stream at home, ones that can provide some uplift in trying times.   Available on Amazon Prime, “The Big Sick” might, at first blush, sound like something from the Lifetime Network, but it’s so much better. Pakistani-American standup comic Kumail Nanjiani pl...

Due to the fact that most of our local cinemas are temporarily closing in reaction to the coronavirus outbreak, this week’s Freeze Frame will focus on brand new movies that […] The post Freeze Frame: “Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (not rated), “Blow the Man Down” (R), “Big Time Adolescence” (R) appeared first on KKFI .

“The Hunt” is an ultra-violent, pitch black satire that’s trying to tap into the zeitgeist. In a contemporary reworking of “The Most Dangerous Game,” a group of wealthy liberal elites entrap citizens with hard right political beliefs and then hunt them down like game. Betty Gilpin from “GLOW” leads the cast as an Afghan War vet who gives her captors more than they bargained for. “The Hunt” is deca...

Second-rate Pixar movies are still better than most of their animated rivals. “Onward” is a likable comic fantasy aimed at boys in the same way that “Frozen” was aimed at girls. Chris Pratt and Tom Holland provide the voices for brother elves from an otherworldly suburbia who embark on a magical quest. It’s funny and sweet-natured, but the movie magic in “Onward” is limited.   Anthony Mackie and S...

A riveting, Oscar-caliber performance from Elizabeth Moss anchors an effective and scary reimagining of the horror chestnut, “The Invisible Man.” Flipping the script to make the victim the focus instead of the title character, this update works as a full-blooded horror film as well as an effective commentary on social issues like bullying and the “Me Too” movement. Yes, “The Invisible Man” is wort...

“The Call of the Wild” is at least the ninth adaptation of the classic Jack London novel about the adventures of a dog named Buck, set during the Yukon Gold Rush iof the 1890s. Harrison Ford plays John Thornton, the gruff prospector who becomes one of Buck’s multiple masters. It’s a rousing story and Ford’s presence is a big help, but the filmmakers use unconvincing computer-generated imagery to c...

“Downhill” is an American remake of “Force Majeure,” a critically acclaimed Swedish film from 2014. Will Farrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus star in the story of a family on a ski vacation in the Alps. Their marriage is strained to the breaking point when Ferrell’s character engages in an act of cowardice during an avalanche. There are few laughs in this version that seems a bit watered down from the...

Margot Robbie’s bat-swinging performance as the Joker’s girlfriend Harley Quinn was probably the best thing about 2016’s comic book movie, “Suicide Squad.” Her character takes center stage in the latest entry in the extended DC Universe, “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).” Essentially an R-rated girl gang movie, “Birds of Prey” is about the efforts of Harley and...

Actress Sophia Lillis from the recent “It” films, moves from dealing with a scary clown to encountering a scary witch in the horror fantasy, “Gretel & Hansel,” based on the classic Brothers Grimm story. Gretel leads her little brother into the dark forest in search of sustenance only to meet up with a wretched enchantress, played by Alice Krige, best known as the diabolical Borg queen from the...