U-CARMEN
Unrated, 120 minutes

“U-Carmen” is not just a vivid reimagining of Georges Bizet’s beloved 1875 opera (which has already been handled on film several times) but a veritable treatise on how new technologies can, if properly used, serve the oldest works of art. Newcomers to the story will discover an opera with teeth, grit … and close-ups — the antithesis of the carefully measured, big-budget visions of such recent musicals as “Chicago” and “Dreamgirls.”

As with most timeless works of art, “Carmen” is endlessly open to interpretation. Pauline Malefane’s heroine is more intense and selfsufficient than other incarnations have been. The actress imbues her with the fiery allure one would expect from a Carmen, but also with gravitas — commanding the screen in a full-figured blue sweat suit — to make this tragic character a strong, independent, and unmistakably modern variation on the old theme.

S. James Snyder (March 28)

OFFSIDE
PG, 88 minutes

“Offside,” a film about Iranian girls who risk arrest, incarceration, and the crippling disapproval of their community in an attempt to attend a soccer match, looks like a documentary. Director Jafar Panahi shot most of it at an actual game, relying on a bit of chicanery to gain permission (he submitted a fake synopsis to Iranian authorities, using a pseudonym) and nonprofessional actors. The female cast is made up of students, many of them die-hard soccer fans in real life. The characters they play are devoted to the sport but also motivated by love of their country.

Throughout “Offside,” conversations and a shared sense of national pride allow the girls and their eventual captors to achieve a surprising intimacy. But this progress is repeatedly stunted by the shadow of a nameless authority.

Darrell Hartman (March 23)

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY
Unrated, 124 minutes

“The Wind That Shakes the Barley” is a rebellion movie less interested in the battlefields of the 1919 Irish Civil War than in the psychic struggles that accompany a nation’s uprising.

Damien O’Donovan (Cillian Murphy) never wanted to be the man holding the gun. Dragged into a conflict he fought so hard to avoid and brought to the realization that no military victory will fully heal his country’s wounds, he is Ireland’s Everyman.

But after a vicious encounter with a gang of British Black & Tans, Damien puts his life on the line to defend home and family. It’s a decision that immediately brings him closer to his brother, Teddy (Pádraic Delaney), an activist leader. As the two train with their countrymen in the hills, steal weapons from the police, and organize attacks in hopes of causing the most possible damage, they discover that guerrilla warfare is not as simple as they imagined.

S.J.S. (March 14)

THE HOST
R, 119 minutes

Korean director Bong Joon-ho has again nurtured a genre premise into smart, fresh, and gripping work that continually surprises with an effortless range of interests.

It all starts with a king-sized walking fish. In a delicious sins-ofmodernity premise à la “Godzilla,” a U.S. Army base dumps toxic waste into Seoul’s Han River. Nature takes its wondrous course, and soon enough an endearingly lopsided mutant amphibian is spotted dangling from a river bridge. The official public response at this point: Throw stuff at it.

Unfortunately for them (fortunately for us), the beast gets hungry. Pandemonium erupts at the riverside park as it comes ashore, and Mr. Bong puts on a fantastic show. Not only are the creature thrills superbly executed and inventive, they’re part of a broader canvas: dysfunctional characters, robust satire of authority, unexpected comedy, intriguing working-class sympathies, and a gorgeous feeling for space and camera placement.

Nicolas Rapold (March 9)