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…

Alternative Title

그리프터스

drama crime

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 Cam ★★★★½ 5

He was so crooked he could eat soup with a corkscrew.
This gritty chunk of early 90’s film flam noir feels like it was custom made just for me. The subject is one I love and Stephen Frears directs the hell out of it. The casting is pure perfection. Watching these three leads bounce off each other is utterly fascinating and every single supporting character is perfectly cast.
This is a film I can watch again and again and never tire of.
"Do you want to stick to that story, or do you want to keep your teeth?"
"I want to keep my teeth."
Review by Travis Lytle ★★★ 3

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 Connor Carey ★★★★ 2

Honestly, this wasn't what I was expecting and that's probably for the better. John Cusack is great as usual here but this one belongs to Anjelica Huston and Annette Benning who both deliver such great work here and were definitely worthy of those Academy Award nominations. This is some of Stephen Frears best work behind the camera and the story takes some really surprising turns along the way.
Review by chavel ★★★★ 2

“You’re working some angle and don’t tell me you’re not, because I wrote the book.” – Lilly Dillon
Explored is the seedy world of the con artist game, film noir style. The Grifters informs us that there are two different kinds: the short con and the long con. Roy Dillon (John Cusack, marvelously subtle) is a maestro of the short con. Dice games. Pool games. Typically, he walks into a bar to ask for a beer, flashes a $20, slides it under his wrist, slides the bartender a $10 bill. In due time he gets caught by the wrong bartender, and takes such a wallop he is forced to the hospital. It is there that his mother Lilly (Anjelica Huston)…
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 and surprises, as what looks like a straightforward story takes a very surreal and unexpected…

Recent reviews

Review by Elizabeth Halbrook

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Stephen Frears is good at directing movies in which you kinda hate John Cusack as a person. Which is impressive. It's really not easy to hate him. But here as a 25 year old not-so-great conman asshole, you totally think he's a turd.
Angelica Huston is real good. I read that she likes her acting in this film the best even though she won the Oscar for Prizzi's Honor. I am still really trying hard to find Prizzi's Honor to purchase streaming online or like anywhere really. The violence against women in this film is not easy to stomach, but it does sound like the original edit was much more violent.
Annette Bening is good too, but I was kind…
Review by Robin Quiñones ★★★★½

John Cusack, Annette Bening, and Anjelica Huston outsmarting each other is a delight to watch.
Buti na lang alam ko meaning ng "grift" before watching this.
Review by Siddy ★★½

A somewhat compelling script but the characters are not as interesting as they pretend.
Review by AndrewGB79 ★★★★

Quality neo-noir. It was entertaining throughout, though the storytelling was a little too loose for me. But things came together for an excellent finale.
Review by Cam ★★★★½ 5

He was so crooked he could eat soup with a corkscrew.
This gritty chunk of early 90’s film flam noir feels like it was custom made just for me. The subject is one I love and Stephen Frears directs the hell out of it. The casting is pure perfection. Watching these three leads bounce off each other is utterly fascinating and every single supporting character is perfectly cast.
This is a film I can watch again and again and never tire of.
"Do you want to stick to that story, or do you want to keep your teeth?"
"I want to keep my teeth."
Review by James Aldridge ★★★★

Remember when Stephen Frears made cool movies?
#BeningIsBest
Review by stanley_gucci ★★★

Grifter? I hardly know her!
A movie about con artists where the plot in no way revolves around anyone getting conned. I guess it’s kind of a refreshing take, but tbh when I fire up a film about grifters I wanna see some motherfuckers get duped.
Annette Bening plays the hell out of a pure sociopath
Review by rrnate ★★★½

This whole movie is great and it's absolutely packed with great actors/actresses and above them all towers Anjelica Huston in a performance so great, there oughta be some kind of hall of fame built just to honor it.
There's an alternate reality where Nic Cage is the grifter in this and I thin that'd be pretty interesting, though, he could never sell "in over his head" the way Cusak does.
Review by kleerob ★★

Boring Weinstein produced shite.. how is this criterion? Paid attention for legit 10 minutes then got bored.. John cusack looked cute though