Film

Six Degrees of Separation

Name: Six Degrees of Separation
Genre: Mystery, Drama, Comedy
Released: 1993
Cast: Stockard Channing, Will Smith, Donald Sutherland, Ian McKellen, Mary Beth Hurt

Based on John Guare's own play, this is a cool, glittering New York fable about a young con man who talks his way into a wealthy couple's dinner party by claiming to be Sidney Poitier's son. It's less thriller than moral inquiry — about art, race, class, and how easily people believe what flatters them. Smith is magnetic; the film stays talky, theatrical, unnervingly smart.

TMDb rating

6.4

If you liked this

The Talented Mr. Ripley1999

Minghella's Ripley is the ultimate charming fraud, inventing himself into a life of wealth and privilege with unsettling ease — the same seduction of borrowed identity that powers Six Degrees, but with a knife's edge.

But It curdles into real menace and violence that Guare's story never approaches — a much colder, crueler experience.

Catch Me If You Can2002

Spielberg's breeziest film follows a teenage con artist impersonating his way across America — pure charisma and daddy issues, told with real affection for its liar.

But It's warmer and far less morally troubling than Six Degrees; there's no real reckoning here, just a very fun chase.

The Grifters1990

A noir about a family of con artists that strips away the charm and shows the wreckage underneath — the same world of performance and deceit, played for keeps.

But Bleak, nasty, and airless where Guare's film stays witty; not a comfortable watch.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Catfish2010

Both are studies in how eagerly people accept a flattering fiction, and how strange the unmasking feels once it finally comes.

A real-life documentary about a man who falls for someone online, only to discover the entire persona was invented — the same vertigo of realizing you've been performed at, not simply lied to.

But It's raw, amateur-shot, and occasionally exploitative of its subject; nothing like Guare's polished dialogue.

Match Point2005

Woody Allen's chilliest film follows an outsider who marries his way into old money and can't stop lying to stay there — ambition curdling into something monstrous.

But It trades Guare's wit for dread; by the end it's practically a thriller, not a comedy of manners.

American Psycho2000

A savage satire of surface, status, and the emptiness underneath New York wealth — everyone in it is performing a self they think will get them ahead.

But Its violence and camp excess are a world away from Guare's dinner-party subtlety.

Metropolitan1990

Whit Stillman's talky debut is basically a play on film too — young WASPs debating manners, class, and belonging over cocktails, with the same dry, literate wit.

But Almost nothing happens; if you want plot or stakes, this will feel airless.

Gosford Park2001

Altman's ensemble country-house mystery is class satire dressed as whodunit — servants and masters both performing roles that keep the whole rotten system running.

But It's a much bigger, starrier ensemble piece, and the mystery plot pulls focus from the social commentary.

The Great Gatsby2013

The original American story of reinvention and old money's suspicion of new — Gatsby's whole self is a performance for people who'll never quite accept him.

But Luhrmann's version is lush, loud, and romantic where Guare's film is spare and skeptical.

Nine Queens2000no page yet

An Argentine caper about con artists working an elaborate scam in a single day — lighter and funnier, but still sharp about greed and trust.

But It's a pure heist film; the class and identity questions that anchor Six Degrees barely register here.

The Music Man1962

Same trick, opposite register: a stranger invents a story people want to believe, and the film asks what that con actually gives them.

A grinning, big-band con man rolls into a small Iowa town and sells everyone a version of themselves they'd rather believe — Guare's Paul with a trombone and a happy ending.

But It's a sunny, old-fashioned musical with none of Six Degrees' unease — pure showbiz, not a moral puzzle.

Passing2021no page yet

Both ask what it costs to perform an identity for people who will only ever half-accept you — one plays it for unease and irony, the other for grief.

A quiet, devastating drama about two Black women in 1920s New York, one of whom passes as white — a serious, sorrowful cousin to Guare's cooler comedy of borrowed identity.

But There's no wit here to soften it; it's a grave, interior film about survival, not a dinner-party farce.