Freeze Frame: “Maria” (R), “Queer” (R), “Kraven the Hunter” (R), “Carry On” (PG-13)

Angelina Jolie’s stunning performance is the main draw of filmmaker Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” a Netflix biopic about the last tragic days in the life of famed operatic diva Maria Callas. A fading Callas shares some intimate memories of her life and career with a journalist…who appears in only her imagination. “Maria” is a low key but empathetic portrait of someone who could have come off as an egotistical shrew.

Daniel Craig puts James Bond way behind him in the intimate drama “Queer,” adapted from Lawrence, Kansas writer William S. Burroughs’s controversial semi-autobiographic novella. An expat in Mexico, hard drinking addict Bill Lee falls for a young gent and they travel to South America in search of an exotic hallucinogenic plant. Craig is solid in director Luca Guadagnino’s daring and artsy film that may be off putting to all but Burroughs’ ardent fans.

Perhaps the best thing you can say about the latest Marvel movie based on a Spider-Man villain is that it’s not as bad as “Madam Web.” In “Kraven the Hunter,” Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays the rebellious son of a ruthless Russian mobster, played by Russell Crowe. Imbued with superpowers derived from a mystic’s potion, he becomes a vengeful protector of nature. There are some lively action scenes, but everything in Kraven seems to be stamped out of a mold. It left me Kraven something new.

The Netflix thriller “Carry On” stars Taron Egerton as a TSA agent blackmailed into helping terrorist Jason Bateman smuggle a suitcase full of deadly nerve agents on board a domestic flight. The stars are fine, but there are a number of nagging implausible elements that undermine an otherwise zippy suspense flick.

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