The Grifters
Stephen Frears' 1990 neo-noir crime thriller centered around three grifters in the City of Angels comes to the Criterion Collection on 4K and Blu-ray. One could make a strong case The Grifters, now 35 years-old, remains the director's best film. Trust may be hard for the characters to find in the script, given the shadowy world of half-truths and lies, but the talent is evident in every frame of this stylish look at con artists getting in over their heads.
John Cusack is the central pillar to the film connecting the other characters as short-con expert Roy Dillion whose slight mishap trying to scam the wrong bartender puts him in the hospital for a short stay. It's there his girlfriend Myra (Annette Bening) and Roy's estranged mother Lily (Anjelica Huston) have their first, but far from last, fateful meeting. Their last will be even more memorable.
Both Lily and Myra are also on the grift, although Myra and Roy don't know that about each other until about halfway through the film when Myra discovers what Roy really does for a living on a weekend getaway. As for Lily, she works helping the mob fix racing betting lines under the brutal Bobo Justus (Pat Hingle) who will not tolerate failure or betrayal. All three are terrific throwing themselves into meaty roles that together complete the puzzle The Grifters creates.
The sunny L.A. setting provides stark contrast to the dark themes of the film. The various pieces of the movie, Lily getting into trouble with Bobo in a brutal sequence that will make you look at citrus differently, the palpable animosity between Lily and Myra, Myra trying to pull Roy into a long con with higher stakes, and Roy having trouble trusting either woman in his life, all come together in pulpy tragedy which ends great for the audience (although not necessarily so well for the characters).
The film has aged wonderfully and the story hasn't lost a beat in 35 years, and the absence of modern technology and cellphones certainly adds to more than a few tense moments over the 110-minute running time. The script, like the performances, takes big swings which continually hit their mark. The sly film will keep your attention from beginning to end with performances and moments that have stuck with me for more than three decades. The new collection includes a 4K digital restoration, audio commentary from Frears, Cusack, Huston and screenwriter Donald E. Westlake, an interview with Bening, short featurettes on the making of the film and the adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel, and the film's trailer.
Watch the trailer- Title: The Grifters
- IMDb: link
