****Excellent***Good**Fair*Poor : <i> Recent releases, reviewed by Times critics.</i> : Movies : *** “House of Games.”<i> HBO. $89.99.</i>

The directorial debut of playwright-screenwriter David Mamet (“Glengarry Glen Ross,” “The Untouchables”), this is a very dry, very cold, absorbing romantic thriller. Working with an ace cast of friends and longtime co-workers--wife Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Michael Nussbaum--he gives us a Robert Rossen subject in a style closer to Robert Bresson: the convoluted con games of a set of Seattle swindlers, whose shadowy barroom turf is invaded by a voyeuristic psychiatrist. The games are sometimes telegraphed, and the hip noir style sometimes a bit arid. But Mamet’s dialogue--subtly rhythmed, pungent, terrifically well-written--carries the movie.