The New Republic

'I Served the King of England' (Sony Pictures Classics) 'Momma's Man' (Kino International) Jiri Menzel is back. This Czech director made a considerable splash in 1967 with Closely Watched Trains, but although he has been busy since then, his later work has not had comparable impact. Now comes I Served the King of England, and strangely, the intervening four decades whisk away. The new film has the same deceptive light touch as the earlier one, a lightness that partially masks the serious subject and yet explores it. READ MORE >>

Man on Wire Magnolia Frozen River Sony Pictures Classics A Girl Cut in Two IFC On August 7, 1974, a man walked across a tightrope stretched between the roofs of two Manhattan skyscrapers. The buildings were the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The funambulist was a Frenchman named Philippe Petit, to whom the feat was much more than daredevilry. READ MORE >>

A Very British GangsterAnywhere RoadBoy AThe Weinstein Company READ MORE >>

The Last Mistress (IFC) Trumbo (Samuel Goldwyn and Red Envelope)   READ MORE >>

MongolPicturehouseThe Edge of HeavenPyramidWhen Did You Last See Your Father?Sony Pictures ClassicsTolstoy was the source of an earlier Sergei Bodrov film, Prisoner of the Mountains, a subtly shaded drama about two Russian soldiers. Bodrov's new film, Mongol, could hardly be more different. Prisoner was a film that existed as a vehicle for characterization; Mongol has just enough characterization to sustain its own reason for being--cinematic fullness. READ MORE >>

Savage Grace (IFC) Sangre de Mi Sangre (IFC) The Battle for Haditha (DreamMachine) Rich people are the center of Savage Grace. This is not only a fact, it is the mode of the film's being. From first moment to last, the film breathes the attar of richesse. The rooms designed by Victor Molero, the costumes by Gabriela Salaverri, the lapping of them by Juanmi Azpiroz's camera--all these confirm that we are leagues above any pleasure-limiting care. READ MORE >>

Roman de GareSamuel Goldwyn Stuff and DoughMitropoulos Up the YangtzeZeitgeist The leading man in Roman de Gare is middle-aged and short, with a jutting jaw. His presence in a role that is supposed to be magnetic and sexy is an immediate clue that something odd is en route. Another quick clue: the title translates as Train Station Novel (something like our phrase "airport novel"). As with Pulp Fiction, the title announces that the picture plans to take the type somewhere else. READ MORE >>

Tuya's Marriage Music Box Flight of the Red Balloon IFC Jellyfish Zeitgeist Surprising things happen in Tuya's Marriage. A herd of sheep pushes across the screen, then the herdsman rides in--on a camel. We learn that the herdsman is actually a woman. Later, she rides out on that camel in a snowstorm to find her son, a storm that has been reported to her by radio. For a party in a big town, this woman, who lives in a crude house, goes to a luxe hotel whose name is displayed in English. All these surprises occur in Mongolia. READ MORE >>

Alexandra (Cinema Guild) The Unforeseen (Cinema Guild) Frownland (Frownland, Inc.) Galina Vishnevskaya, the renowned singer who is now in her eighties and who has hitherto acted principally in opera, plays the leading role in the Russian film Alexandra. Possibly this came about because the previous film by this director was a documentary on Vishnevskaya and her late husband, the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich. That director is Alexander Sokurov, READ MORE >>

Alexandra. With surprising frankness, this Russian film explores the barbarities of war, especially in Chechnya (unnamed). The picture is much heightened by the performance of a former opera star as a grandmother who visits her soldier-grandson at his army base. (Reviewed 4/9/08) READ MORE >>