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Format: VHS
Jun 1991
Rated R
Recording Mode: Stereo
Sound: HiFi, Stereo
Closed Captioned
114 min.
Color
UPC: 026359054532 |
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Details
Movie Description
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.
Synopsis
This cool and brutal adaptation of Jim Thompson's stylish noir novel centers on the complex lives of three con artists. Roy Dillon (John Cusack), a low-level con artist based in L.A., has a day job as a salesman, but it's simply a cover-up for his profitable profession as a petty thief. Roy's mother, Lilly (Angelica Huston), is also in the business, working the Baltimore race track, where she pockets a bundle in illegal funds. When Lilly shows up in L.A. after eight years away from her son, she finds him recovering from a serious occupational hazard: getting beaten to a pulp. Lilly had Roy when she was 14 and abandoned him when he was 17, leaving the two with no real relationship to speak of, and a bizarre Oedipal attraction. Roy's sexy amoral girlfriend is Myra (Annette Bening), a con down on her luck and willing to do whatever it takes to get back on the top of her game. Myra and Lilly compete for Roy's attention and ultimately drive him away from both of them in this very complex character study of people caught in a world with no one to trust. This acclaimed film by director Stephen Frears features outstanding performances from the trio of stars.
Film Notes
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.
Industry Reviews
"...[Huston's] performance is as devastating as any in film..."
Travers
"...Stunning noir....[Cusack shows] circumspect intelligence..." -- Rating: A
Campbell
"...Guaranteed to take the breath away....[Few films] pack a wallop to compare with this..." -- Critic's Choice
Maslin
"...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..."
Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas (12/05/1990)
"Slick surrealism from Stephen Frears..."
Uncut - Paul Moody (08/01/2001)
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] stylishly retro adap of one of the author's most representative works....With its coldly amoral nihilism intact."
Total Film - Neil Smith (05/01/2007)
"Frears and cinematographer Oliver Stapleton make late 1980s America look as dark and moody as any city in an old film noir."
Sight and Sound - Geoffrey Macnab (04/01/2007)
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