Freeze Frame: “Red One” (PG-13), “A Real Pain” (R), “Emilia Peréz” (R)

Are you looking for a Christmas movie with charm and warmth that captures the holiday spirit? If so, then the Rock’s PG-13 adventure flick “Red One” ain’t it. If you want a loud, manic action fantasy about baddies kidnapping Santa aimed squarely at pre-teen boys, then this one’s for you. Dwayne Johnson plays the North Pole’s head of security who unwillingly teams up with Chris Evans, a lowlife criminal who holds the key to finding St. Nick. It’s a juvenile James Bond wannabe buried under an avalanche of computer effects and holiday gimmickry. It has a few funny moments but its klutzy attempts at sentimentality land with a thud. Considering its $250 million budget, I don’t think that “Red One” will ever make it into the black.

Can someone be endearingly annoying? Kieran Culkin makes the case in the comic drama “A Real Pain.” Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg play two very dissimilar Jewish cousins. One is awkwardly repressed and the other is awkwardly unrestrained and the reasons for this dichotomy surface during a tense tour of Poland they take together to honor their late grandmother. Written and directed by Eisenberg, “A Real Pain” is a sweet and empathetic look at family dysfunction.

You gotta give the Netflix drama “Emilia Peréz” bonus points for originality. Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofia Gascon star in French director Jacques Audiard’s Spanish language musical about a Mexican drug kingpin whose decision to have a secret gender change brings unexpected complications. It doesn’t all work and the music is fairly conventional, but “Emilia Peréz” is still an involving, novel and sometimes jarring approach to an arresting story.

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