Freeze Frame: “You People” (R), “Infinity Pool” (R), “Living” (PG-13)

The Hollywood rom-com meets an R-rated social commentary in the Netflix movie, “You People.” Jonah HIll plays Ezra, a white Jewish podcaster who falls for an African-American Muslim designer named Amira, played by Lauren London. Eddie Murphy and Nia Long are Amira’s perplexed parents and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and David Duchovny are Ezra’s befuddled folks. The crude language and content provide the story with the edginess it aims for, but the proceedings still have a candy-coated Hollywood sheen. Still, “You People ” is an often funny, sharp and observant dissection of contemporary race relations.

Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth star in the hallucinogenic midnight movie “Infinity Pool,” a grisly horror entry that mixes sci-fi elements with class critique. Skarsgård plays a struggling writer who, along with his wealthy girlfriend, goes on vacation at a posh resort in a third world country. Another couple introduces them to some depravity and things get really strange when the local authorities get involved. Writer/director Brandon Cronenberg’s opus initially received an NC-17 rating, but some minor changes allowed them to sneak by with an “R.” It revels in its ugliness, but this “Infinity Pool” is just shallow.

Bill Nighy gives an Oscar-nominated performance in the touching drama “Living,” a British reimagining of Akilra Kurosawa’s classic 1952 Japanese film, “Ikiru,” which was, in turn, inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s novella, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.” Nighy plays an aging bureaucrat who reexamines his life when faced with a terminal illness. With the limited time he has left, he decides to see if he can make a positive impact. “Living” is a thoughtful, introspective, and touching drama.


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