Freeze Frame: “Challengers” (R), “Boy Kills World” (R), “We Grown Now” (PG)

The tennis movie “Challengers” takes the term ‘love’ in a kinky direction. Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist star in a raunchy comic drama about a ménage à troi involving championship level competitors. The actors are fine and look convincing on the court. The timeline of director Luca Guadagnino’s story bounces back and forth between the past and present, a bit like watching a tennis match. While it’s guilty of a few foot faults, “Challengers” is a clever if overly slick enterprise.

If “The Hunger Games” had been made by video game gearheads, it might have looked like the blood-soaked sci-fi comedy, “Boy Kills World.” Bill Skarsgård plays a mute avenger seeking to assassinate the leader of a dystopian city who murdered his family. It has a Hong Kong action meets Cartoon Network vibe. The cheeky, irreverent humor works for a while until everything gets bogged down in repetitive, violent mayhem. “Boy Kills World” is half of a good movie.

“We Grown Now” is a restrained and lyrical look at the joys and difficulties of families living in the Chicago projects in the 1990s, seen through the eyes of two young boys. Blake Cameron James is Malik and Gian Knight Ramirez plays Eric, pals who make the best of things, mostly through their imaginations. The brief scenes between Jurnee Smollett and S. Epatha Merkerson as Malik’s mother and grandmother are sensitively played. While some might find it a bit too sentimental and slow moving, it’s nevertheless a heartfelt portrait that emphasizes the humanity of its characters. “We Grown Now” stands in stark contrast to the Hollywood cliche of ‘The Hood.”

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