FREEZE FRAME: “Keanu,” “Mother’s Day,” “Papa: Hemingway in Cuba,” “Louder Than Bombs”

Key & Peele’s first feature film together may be a one-joke affair…but it’s a very funny joke. Fans of the duo’s Comedy Central sketch show will love “Keanu,” a raunchy, irreverent satire…and so will many newcomers. The comics play nerdy cousins who pose as hardcore drug dealers in an effort to regain a stolen kitten. There’s enough violence, drugs and foul language in this gleefully goofy romp to easily earn an R-rating, but the vibe is so sweet natured, that it’s almost inoffensive. This “Keanu” is one cool cat.

Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts and Kansas City’s Jason Sudeikis star in Garry Marshall’s latest holiday comedy, “Mother’s Day.” This ensemble sitcom weaves several stories about a number of folks as they prepare for Mother’s Day celebrations in Atlanta. The humor is forced, the sentiment is artificial and the story is chock full of awkward stereotypes. But thanks to the cast, undemanding audiences might find something to like in this extremely lightweight effort.

It’s odd that a movie about one of the world’s greatest writers is so poorly written. Giovanni Ribisi plays a Miami newspaper writer who befriends Ernest Hemmingway, played by stage actor Adrian Sparks, in “Papa: Hemmingway in Cuba.” This tired biopic wastes a good cast and the stunning Cuban scenery on a colorless, cardboard portrait of the renowned novelist who battled writer’s block, depression and alcoholism in his final years. Papa deserves better.

Gabriel Byrne, Jesse Eisenberg and Isabelle Huppert star in “Louder Than Bombs,” a thoughtful, well acted and profoundly sad look at how one family deals with grief after a tragic event. It’s smart, observant and involving, but never quite achieves the level of emotional devastation it was aiming for.

Also opening this week, “The First Monday in May” is a documentary about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s fashion show “China: Through the Looking Glass.”


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