Film

The Grifters

Name: The Grifters
Genre: Crime, Drama
Released: 1990
Cast: Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening, Jan Munroe, Robert Weems

The Grifters is Stephen Frears' sun-bleached, sweat-stained noir about small-time cons and one very large one — the con a mother runs on her own son. Adapted from Jim Thompson, it moves like a thriller but bites like tragedy: every affectionate word carries an angle. For lovers of hardboiled fiction and actors chewing gristle, not for anyone wanting a caper with a bow on it.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like crime stories where every smile hides a calculation, and the tension comes from watching cold, skilled people circle each other with mutual suspicion.

Skip it if you want a brisk, plot-driven thriller; this one lingers on character and unease, and its mood stays bleak and claustrophobic for most of its runtime.

What it asks of you: Around two hours of patient, shadowy build-up, with little relief; it rewards close attention to who is lying to whom and why.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

House of Games1987

Mamet's directorial debut is the purest distillation of the con-artist mindset: clipped dialogue, scams nested inside scams, and a psychiatrist who gets in over her head chasing the thrill of deception itself.

But The dialogue is deliberately stylised and theatrical — if you want naturalistic speech, this will feel like actors reciting chess moves.

Nightmare Alley2021

Del Toro's lush carnival noir follows a charming grifter climbing from sideshow barker to society mentalist, and watching his own scheme finally catch up with him is as satisfying as it is inevitable.

But Its pacing is deliberate and its runtime generous — this is a slow burn dressed as pulp, not a quick thrill.

Body Heat1981

Kathleen Turner's femme fatale and William Hurt's dim, horny lawyer reinvent Double Indemnity for the sweat-soaked eighties, all slow ceiling fans and dialogue you can practically feel on your skin.

But It's unapologetically horny and a little corny by design — if that turns you off noir pastiche, skip it.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Grifters

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

White Heat1949

Both put a grown man's fate in the hands of a mother who loves him the way a con artist loves a mark — possessively, transactionally, and to the death.

Cagney's Cody Jarrett is a gangster whose only real relationship is with his monstrous, adoring mother — 'Made it, Ma, top of the world!' is one of cinema's great final howls, decades before Lilly and Roy.

But It's a much broader, more operatic gangster picture than Grifters' clammy realism — subtlety is not the point here.

The Last Seduction1994

Linda Fiorentino is magnificently, unrepentantly awful as a woman who treats every man she meets as a mark, in a low-budget neo-noir with more genuine nerve than most studio thrillers twice its size.

But There's no one to root for here — if you need a character to like, this will leave you cold.

Blood Simple1985

The Coens' first film is a lean, nasty machine of misunderstandings and bad decisions, proof that small-time greed and jealousy can spiral into something genuinely terrifying without anyone being a criminal genius.

But It's bleaker and more violent than its comic reputation suggests — this is not the Coens at their whimsical best.

Matchstick Men2003

Nicolas Cage plays a twitchy, superstitious con man whose estranged daughter shows up and threatens to be the one mark he can't quite work, in a film funnier and sadder than it looks.

But The twist has divided audiences for two decades — some find it a gut-punch, others feel cheated by it.

American Hustle2013

A starry ensemble plays fast and loose with the real-life Abscam scandal, all wigs, disco and moral flexibility, for a con caper more interested in vanity and self-delusion than clean plotting.

But It's shaggier and more indulgent than a tight heist movie — style sometimes wins out over story.

The Sting1973

Newman and Redford at their most winking, running an elaborate long con on a vicious mob boss, in a film so confident in its own cleverness that you forgive every implausible turn.

But It's warmer and more crowd-pleasing than Grifters — the stakes never feel truly dangerous.

Double Indemnity1944

The blueprint for every noir grift that followed: Barbara Stanwyck's anklet, Fred MacMurray's fatal weakness for it, and a voiceover confession that turns the whole thing into a slow-motion train wreck.

But The moral universe is stark black-and-white, literally — modern noir's murkier ambiguity is largely absent here.

Tickled2016

Same low hum of paranoia as Grifters: someone is always working an angle on you, and you don't find out who, or how deep it goes, until it's too late.

A throwaway joke about competitive tickling videos unravels into a genuinely unnerving real-world con involving blackmail, secret money and a mystery benefactor who may be running the whole scheme from the shadows.

But It's rougher and more amateurish than a polished doc — the filmmakers become part of the story in ways that can feel uncomfortable.

Hereditary2018

Swap crime for the occult and you get the same engine: a parent's manipulation reaching so deep into a child's life that escaping it may be structurally impossible.

Toni Collette gives a ferocious performance as a mother whose grief and secrets metastasize into something ancient and unstoppable — a horror film that understands family loyalty can be the most dangerous con of all.

But It's a supernatural horror film with a much higher body count and slower dread — no cons, no cards, no cool clothes.