The Grifters is not the sort of film I would usually choose to watch, but I'm a John Cusack fan and I also enjoy watching film noir, so when a friend recommended this film to me I was intrigued to watch it. The plot follows Roy Dillon, played by Cusack, whose life is a strange concoction of mystery, secrecy and subtle action. Dillon is in a relationship with a woman called Myra who is equally mysterious but also seemingly innocent. She is a bubbly character but also clearly trouble in other ways. We soon learn that both characters are in the con-artist business; they are 'grifters'; and this is represented throughout the film by the master of grift, Dillon's ...  Read the complete review

A defiantly hard film to like, dealing as it does with a series of deeply compromised con-artists making a living in sleazy Los Angeles. Stephen Frears' follow-up to the emotional and sexual intrigues of pre-revolutionary France (Dangerous Liaisons) is an exceptionally dark and absorbing picture of crime and obsession. Anjelica Huston is just towering as Lily, an older generation criminal perversely attracted to her weak, con-man son Roy (John Cusack) who is being steered towards a life in the big leagues of crime by another femme fatale, Myra (Annette Bening). The stuff about con-artistry comes in the details - this is no big crime film, but a story of ...  Read the complete review