FREEZE FRAMES

EVERYBODY'S ALL-AMERICAN - He's a college football star at the beginning of the story and a paunchy has-been at the end. In between he meanders through tricky relationships with his wife, a one-time beauty queen, and his intelligent but sometimes insecure nephew. Directed by Taylor Hackford, who made a gold mine from this sort of facile emotionalism in ``An Officer and a Gentleman'' and pulls out many of the same tricks again here. Jessica Lange is right at home as the sturdy woman of the tale; Dennis Quaid is remarkably convincing as the character he plays gets older and puffier; and Timothy Hutton brings quiet skill to his third-banana role. But most impressive of all is Carl Lumbly as a black athlete who becomes a civil rights leader and then a successful entrepreneur. The movie comes alive whenever he comes on screen, raising an interesting question: Why isn't the picture about him in the first place? (Rated R) FILM ACTRESS - A dramatized biography of movie actress Kinuyo Tanaka, who entered the Japanese cinema during the legendary period when filmmaking giants like Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu still had active careers. Directed by Kon Ichikawa, who tells the tale too languidly but punctuates it with evocative images. (Not rated) MYSTIC PIZZA - Emotions run high in this Connecticut pizzeria, where three young women deal with boyfriends, parents, and peers. In all, it's ``Diner,'' female-style. Directed by Donald Petrie from a blatantly manipulative screenplay that took four people to cook up. (Rated R) STREAMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS - An anthology subtitled ``Recent American Independent Animation,'' put together by filmmakers David Ehrlich and George Griffin for New York's creative Film Forum theater. The program is uneven, but it has at least two winners: Sally Cruikshank's antic ``Face Like a Frog'' and James Duesing's funny, punky ``Tugging the Worm.'' Other cartoonists include Karen Aqua, Joanna Priestley, Dennis Pies, Marcy Page, Amy Kravitz, Sara Petty, Joey Ahlbum, Rose Bond, Jim Blashfield, and the two who chose the selection. (Not rated) THINGS CHANGE - An aging cobbler finds himself spending some unexpected days with gangsters who need a favor from him. Joe Mantegna is wryly amusing as the story's main hoodlum, and Don Ameche is better yet as his befuddled new friend. But the screenplay, by David Mamet and Shel Silverstein, lacks the punch of Mamet's solo scripts; and the visual style of his film ``House of Games'' was more pungent. (Rated PG) WITHOUT A CLUE - Yet another twist on the Sherlock Holmes motif, suggesting that the great detective was really an addle-brained actor whose words and actions were secretly scripted by Dr. Watson, the real genius of the duo. Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine are great fun as the Baker Street sleuths, and the first few scenes are hilarious. Then the picture gets repetitious and noisy. Thom Eberhardt directed from a screenplay by Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther. (Rated PG) RATINGS: Films with ratings other than G may contain varying degrees of vulgar language, nudity, sex, and violence.