‎The Grifters (1990) directed by Stephen Frears • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

The Grifters

1990 Directed by Stephen Frears

Seduction. Betrayal. Murder. Who's conning who?

A young short-con grifter suffers both injury and the displeasure of reuniting with his criminal mother, all the while dating an unpredictable young lady.

Anjelica Huston John Cusack Annette Bening Jan Munroe Stephen Tobolowsky Jimmy Noonan Richard Holden Henry Jones Robert Weems Michael Laskin Eddie Jones Sandy Baron Lou Hancock Gailard Sartain Noelle Harling Ivette Soler Pat Hingle Paul Adelstein Jeremy Piven Gregory Sporleder David Sinaiko Jeff Perry Jon Gries Charles Napier J.T. Walsh Teresa Gilmore Elizabeth Ann Feeley Billy Ray Sharkey Frances Bay Show All…

110 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Aaron ★★★★★ 11

Part of Noir-November

“You wouldn’t do that.” “You don’t know what I’d do—you have no idea—to live.”

The word “grift” originated in the early twentieth century as an amalgam of “graft” and “drift,” a way to describe those itinerant conmen who followed the era's traveling circuses and sideshows swindling folks out of a buck or two. It’s a perfect word, really—descriptive and textured, with hints of both hard work and dishonesty, a combination of attraction and repulsion that any con artist brings with him. A common thief steals out of desperation or greed or ill will, but a grifter...well, a grifter doesn’t want to take your money so much as convince you to give it to her. She aims to…
Review by Travis Lytle ★★★ 2

Stephen Frears' "The Grifters" is a competent con-person drama that blends touches of light, dark, crime, and family politics. It is an engaging piece of work that is at its best when Frears focuses on his characters' criminal streaks but becomes slightly sodden when their interactions with one another take center stage.

At times, "The Grifters" is a jazzy crime drama where criminal machinations and the long and short grifts of its characters are capably entertaining. When the film's narrative sensibilities turn to the drama linking its three main characters, the whole affair seems to tire. Its twisty plot, however, still offers enough to compel.

The production has a limited scope, but Frears puts together something that feels more expansive.…
Review by Andy Summers ★★★

I've been a fan of Stephen Frears' work for many years now. From My Beautiful Laundrette to Dangerous Liaisons, The Queen to High Fidelity, he's managed to engage his audience for over thirty years with a series of high quality films across a whole spectrum of genres. The Grifters from back in 1990 saw him tackle a crime neo-noir, one with more shocking twists than Kevin Spacey's dating history. I'd seen this six years ago, but couldn't remember much about it apart from a lot of nudity from Annette Bening. Featuring John Cusack, Anjelica Huston, and the aforementioned Bening, this has cons and grifts, shocks an surprises, as what looks like a straightforward story takes a very surreal and unexpected…
Review by Danny Webster ★★★★ 2

Director Project

Director: Stephen Frears (Final Film)

The Grifters is a pulpy Oedipal story influenced strongly by Greek tragedy and my earliest comparison to another film comes in the form of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 horror Psycho.

This film isn't a horror, and perhaps due to my real lack of knowledge regarding neo-noir I'm stuck for anything real to connect it to, but what I loved about the film, and the characters especially is that they're essentially conning everyone else, but also they're conning themselves. Conning themselves into believing what they want to believe and overall, the film, despite me not really having talked much about it, is a spectacularly performed and put together tour of excellence.

It's a twisty sleight of the hand that proves to be a slightly complex con act performed by an accomplished and confident Stephen Frears. I'm not one to often recommend a film, but this is certainly at least well worth watching.
Review by Varghese Eapen ★★★★ 1

"Well, who's a boy gonna talk to if not his mother?"

Who would have thought Lester Burnham's wife could play a conniving Bimbo to perfection?

John Cusack excels in a restrained performance.

Anjelica Huston as expected nails down the part of the experienced grifter who has seen it all.

A juicy neo noir with killer lines with twists and turns around the corner!
Review by coles84 ★★½

Scavenger Hunt 39/Film 19/A film starring someone from Kentucky

I had very high hopes for this film. I watched the impressive looking new release Blu from 101 films that contains one of the nicest booklets full of solid information however ultimately I was disappointed.

It's not a badly made film, the acting was excellent, in particular, Annette Bening who is at the top of her game here and the film looks good using nice locations and some good cinematography but although the story is adapted from a Jim Thompson novel I just felt it did not tell enough of a story for me to fully invest in. Its a story of a con artist (John Cusack) who is split between…

Recent reviews

Review by Lanzo ★★★★

Me every time John cusack was on screen: baby boy baby
Review by Calum Iain MacIver ★★★★

Seedy slice of pulp noir, based around three career criminals who are working different types of cons and swindles. Roy Dillon (John Cusack) is a small time huckster working petty "short cons”; his estranged mother Lilly (Anjelica Huston) is a tough, hard-bitten dame working racetrack betting scams for the mob, while Myra (Annette Bening) is a sexy fun-lover using her charms to con rich businessmen and always on the look-out for a spectacular “long con”. Donald E. Westlake’s script (from Jim Thompson’s novel) paints the grifter lifestyle as bleak, seedy and lonely. His story revolves around the three leads rather than focusing on one particular protagonist and cleverly paints the various psychodramas going on between the trio. This gives a…
Review by CartoonSA ½

Noir? Nah. Avoid.
Review by bathannatt ★★★½

In a sense, this takes place in the same universe as Dangerous Liasons.
Review by Joe Salvato ★½

The final scene is actually awesome but yeah not enough
Review by coles84 ★★½

Scavenger Hunt 39/Film 19/A film starring someone from Kentucky

I had very high hopes for this film. I watched the impressive looking new release Blu from 101 films that contains one of the nicest booklets full of solid information however ultimately I was disappointed.

It's not a badly made film, the acting was excellent, in particular, Annette Bening who is at the top of her game here and the film looks good using nice locations and some good cinematography but although the story is adapted from a Jim Thompson novel I just felt it did not tell enough of a story for me to fully invest in. Its a story of a con artist (John Cusack) who is split between…
Review by Josh H ★★★★

Not sure how I'd never seen this
Review by Chloe ★★½

It all just felt curiously empty, like an overlong film noir parody. Stylish, but the dialogue isn't sharp enough to cover the void at the centre. The ending is great though.
Review by Chris Underwood ★★★★½

Very good film with great performances from Anjelica Houston and John Cusack. But then being biased upon a book by Jim Thompson and scripted by Donald E Westlake it has a lot going for it even before you are aware of Martin Scorsese as a producer. Not sure why it is not better known or more loved but this is probably because it does not feature the male mob boys up front and but instead seeming smaller bit part players (and two women at that). The dialogue is wonderful, snappy , exciting and believable and if things are a bit confusing at the start, not helped by some unnecessary split screen gimmickry, once things get going and we stop worrying about the intricacies of betting odds, sit back and enjoy the fast moving, albeit wordy, action. Great fun - oh but a bit violent too!