Janae Milner
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Cassandra
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Aspen Orson
There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.
classicalsteve
In most films about "grifters", or "con artists", they are almost always the ones the audiences root for, such as the lovable characters in "The Sting", Gondorff and Hooker (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) whose only marks are those who deserve it. In reality, grifters mark anyone they think they can take. And the more the mark has, the more the grifter thinks he or she can take from them. A con artist (aka confidence man or woman) uses camaraderie and deception to convince a potential victim to willfully give them money. In the best con games, the mark doesn't realize he or she has been "taken".Roy Dillon (John Cusack) is a small-con grifter who was taught by an older con artist and magician. He perpetrates small-time tricks, like switching bills at bars, and getting in with strangers to play rigged games of chance. But he's never enacted bigger cons. His mother Lilly Dillion is also a grifter who works for the mobs which own many of horse racing tracks in California. She's paid to bet on long shots to decrease the pay offs in case the long shot wins, using the mob's own money, even though the track itself doesn't know the mob is actually paying into its own betting pool. For example, if a horse had 50-1 odds to win, and Lilly adds money into the betting pool making the odds 40-1, if the horse wins, the mob only has to pay off $40 to every $1 bet instead of $50. But there's a small hitch. Lilly is skimming off the top, betting less money than the mob has given her, and she hides the extra in the trunk of her car.The wild card is a young female grifter name of Myra Langtry (Annette Bening) who was once in a big con game with a man name of Cole (J.T. Walsh). At the film's beginning we learn Roy is going with Myra, but he's not sure about her, and he doesn't know she's a grifter. After Roy unsuccessfully pulls one of his bate and switch the bills games on the wrong bartender which lands him a slug into the stomach, Lilly and Myra meet at hospital. From the get-go we know that Lilly and Myra are adversaries, both vying for the affections of Roy. Eventually, Roy and Myra leave on a road trip.During the trip, Myra recounts her days with Cole and how they swindled Texas millionaires out of thousands in cash. They set up a phony office when oil prices were down and convinced Texas magnates to invest thousands of dollars into a scheme. Cole and Myra would convince the mark they could defraud the stock or bonds market by placing orders depending upon a shift in the market, such as a stock, bond or currency, and then cash in on the profits. The trick was a 7-second delay in which if there was a significant move of a stock and/or commodity up or down on the Tokyo exchange, they could either buy or sell before the information reached New York. When the mark brought the money, and all that was needed was to make the actual transaction, a phony scenario was presented to the mark involving authorities, and the mark and his money would soon part company.But Roy has never tried anything so big before. And his mother Lilly wants Roy out of the con game, before he becomes like her, a loser who has sold her soul to the mob. She is physically punished by one of the mobsters for missing one of the high-stakes races when she takes Roy to hospital, and as luck would have it, one of the long-shots wins, forcing the mob to pay 70-1 odds. We know that this is a tug of war between these two women, the sexy upstart grifter Myra and the lonely loser old grifter Lilly.An excellent film which probably more accurately portrays the cut-throat world of con artists. In reality, some con artists are playing deadly games, not like the characters portrayed in "The Sting", "The Film-Flam Man" and "House of Games". A French nobleman who had invested with Bernie Madoff committed suicide when the fraud was revealed, and others have been killed by con artists. The world of Roy, Lilly and Myra portrays a much deadlier world. While a great and compelling film, I would have liked Myra and Roy to engage the "big con" which in the end they avoid.
Spikeopath
The Grifters is directed by Stephen Frears and adapted to screenplay by Donald E. Westlake from the novel of the same name written by Jim Thompson. It stars Anjelica Huston, John Cusack and Annette Bening. Music is by Elmer Bernstein and cinematography by Oliver Stapleton."The best reason I can think of is that you scare the hell out of me. I have seen women like you before, baby. You're double-tough and you are sharp as a razor, and you get what you want or else; but you don't make it work forever. Sooner or later the lightning hits, and I'm not gonna be around when it hits you"1990 was a grand year for neo-noir, of the dozen + titles that came out that year, The Grifters sits atop of the pile. A superlative film noir that boasts class on the page and on both sides of he camera. Set in modern day Los Angeles, the story follows three cynical and sly con artists through a psychological fog of bluff, double bluff, pain, misery, manipulations and shattering developments. That the trio consists of a boyfriend, girlfriend and an estranged mother only darkens the seamy waters still further.Los Angeles positively bristles with a smouldering atmosphere thanks to the work of Frears, Bernstein and Stapleton. Sexual tension is ripe, Westlake's adaptation doing justice to Thompson's novel, while the three leads – and Pat Hingle in super support – are on fire, bringing complex characters vividly to life as they trawl through the devilishly labyrinthine plot, adding biting humour and shallow savagery into the bargain.A top draw neo-noir that doesn't cut corners or pull its punches, from the split screen opening salvo to the pitch black finale, The Grifters delivers high quality for neo-noir fans. 9/10
Marc Israel
A cinematic experience revolving around characters that are universally unlikable requires director prowess to bring us into a world which we either don't know very well or are curious about enough to buy into what little we know. What we find out leads us to have a new affinity for those able to survive in such a world (bevause grifting is all about survival) or at least a better understanding of the survival mind set. After watching "The Grifters" I have very little of either. This is a direct knock on Director Stephen Frears, whose other movie I've seen, "Dirty Pretty Things" taught us a bit of the survival mindset but didn't take us anywhere worthwhile as well. The premise that people want to experience something outside f their lives so they go to the theater t o be transplanted elsewhere is generally missed in this confusing personality crisis of three connected con artists, the worst played by Annette Bening. Love her elsewhere, but her character in never straight with us, we're not sure of her intentions, and when she gets naked, becomes some playfully doll thing that v=can't stop making up lines that other people would say when not naked and offering their body for some alternative form of payment. She was a very cute but naked mess. John Cusack falls short with his dialog out of a book and not able to inject either affection or sympathy. Why should we care for him and how did he get all that money? His bar scams were so small time they were laughably unbelievable that he was a small time con man. He was below that self described minimal success level of a con artist. That leaves us with Anjelica Huston, who was very believable but that white hair-do took away her power to be approaching middle age sexy. We hear of the big bad wolf, Bobo, and even meet him, but he's a bad guy for a comedy only, not a noir film. Same could be said about the grifting teacher from Roys' (John Cusack) past. It's hard not to like a crime story, but it was impossible to like The Grifters".
Mike Bloxham
An above average film noir but strangely flat and unengaging. All the ingredients are there for a really great movie but it never quite hits the mark. John Cusack is alright but not amazing, Annette Benning is frankly irritating, Angelica Huston is very good, given the dialogue she had to work with.The story beats aren't very well executed, especially the ending and the dialogue is sketchy in places. Worth a watch for fans of the genre but I wouldn't watch it again. The film simply isn't much fun or particularly stimulating to watch. I'm a little mystified as to why it got 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
