Cinema: The Gamut Of Mamet

You are a decent sort--ambitious, a bit rigid and guarded, perhaps not the most likable person around, but smart and honest. The stakes are high in your career; pleasures are morphing into pressures. Then you have what seems like an innocuous conversation, and things change. Someone is playing tricks on you, making your life hell. You are the victim of a long con. Hey, it's only business. The American way.

You are the hero of a David Mamet movie, of House of Games, Homicide, Oleanna or his newest, finest shell game, The Spanish Prisoner. In this diamond-hard, ice-cold thriller, young Joe...