THE GRIFTERS is an intense character study of a group of people caught up in a world where nobody can be trusted. Stephen Frears presents this cool and brutal adaptation of Jim Thompson's stylish noir novel, which centers on the complex lives of three con artists. Shady Roy Dillon (John Cusack), a low-level Los Angeles con man and petty thief, and Roy's sexy, amoral girlfriend Myra (Annette Bening), a con artist who is down on her luck and willing to do whatever it takes to get back on top of her game; are the focal point of the action. Rounding out the trio is Roy's mother, Lilly (Angelica Huston), a veteran con artist who shares little with Roy other than a bizarre oedipal attraction. The seedy underbelly of LA life is played out in evocative tableaux, as Myra and Lilly compete for Roy's attention until they ultimately drive him away.
Theatrical release: December 1990.
THE GRIFTERS premiered at the Toronto Festival of Festivals in September 1990.
Producer Martin Scorsese narrates the short opening of the film.
Review 1:
"...[Huston's] performance is as devastating as any in film..."
Source: Rolling Stone
p.117-8 11/29/1990
Review 2:
"...Bening and Cusack are perfection at what they are doing, she twinkly as a rhinestone, he dangerously passive....[Frears] has an entire movie in which to play with our nerves, and in a masterful display of control, he never lets up..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.F1 12/05/1990
Review 3:
"Slick surrealism from Stephen Frears..."
Source: Uncut
p.142 08/01/2001
Review 4:
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] stylishly retro adap of one of the author's most representative works....With its coldly amoral nihilism intact."
Source: Total Film
p.120 05/01/2007
Review 5:
"Frears and cinematographer Oliver Stapleton make late 1980s America look as dark and moody as any city in an old film noir."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.85 04/01/2007
Review 6:
"...Stunning noir....[Cusack shows] circumspect intelligence..." -- Rating: A
Source: Entertainment Weekly
pp.74-5 10/08/1999
Review 7:
"...Guaranteed to take the breath away....[Few films] pack a wallop to compare with this..." -- Critic's Choice
Source: New York Times
p.C13 01/25/1991
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