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Jan 15, 2025 Web Exclusive By Kaveh Jalinous Photography by The Criterion Collection

Quickly glancing at British director Stephen Frears’ filmography—a director known primarily for his down-the-middle, crowd-pleasing and safe dramas—The Grifters (1990) feels wildly out of place, in an exciting way. After all, it’s hard to believe the filmmaker behind films like The Queen, Philomena, and Victoria & Abdul was once at the helm of a gritty, surprisingly Freudian Neo-noir about three con artists who abuse their relationships with one another to no avail. It’s always exciting to discover a different kind of work from a filmmaker whose work feels so familiar (and, in Frears’ case, so inviting). The Grifters may be anything but that.

Set in Los Angeles, The Grifters follows three grifters—Roy (John Cusack), Lilly (Anjelica Huston) and Myra (Annette Benning)—who live almost completely different lives, with completely different cons. Roy engages in small-time theft. Lilly works for a bookmaker, traveling around the country to profit off of horserace betting. Myra uses sex to con people, whether pawning a bracelet or getting out of paying rent. Regardless of their cons being so different, the three characters are intertwined. Lilly is Roy’s mother; Myra and Roy are seeing one another.

The film’s central narrative begins early on, when Lilly visits Roy for the first time in eight years. While talking, Roy collapses from an internal hemorrhage. Lilly rushes him to the hospital; while there, she crosses paths with Myra. The two instantly take a disliking to one another, complicating things for all three characters while they attempt to scam and profit off of both each other and those around them at the same time. As the film moves forward, its story becomes even more psychological, as characters’ use their skills of deception and to further get into the others’ heads, even threatening their livelihoods (and even their lives) in the process.

Frears’ outlook on a story like this has an unforgettable style, but not in the way you’d expect from a film about hustling. There’s no smoothness, aloofness or quick-pacing here; the story is almost exclusively bogged down in its characters’ despair. Stylistically, the film’s lighting and blocking choices amplify this effect. This is a Los Angeles comprised of dark bars, of overcrowded horse racetracks, and of daytime shadowing so amplified you can barely tell which character is on-screen. It’s an L.A. exclusively confined to circles you’d never want to be a part of, of locations that feel exhausting to spectate, even as an audience member.

Narratively, the characters are extremely unlikeable (naturally). Their lack of genuineness, the way they call each other by their first names ad nauseam (to the point of feeling completely falsified and staged) and their inherent ability to make mistakes subverts all expectations of what style a cinematic grifter is meant to have. You won’t find Danny Ocean’s suaveness, nor Moses Pray’s secret heart of gold anywhere near The Grifters’ drab, lifeless environments. It’s a true testament to Frears’ skill as a filmmaker to create settings, and make decisions, that amplify these effects.

Even so, while The Grifters reinvention of the typical conman film is what makes it unique, it can also make the film feel exhausting and tiring. The film is bogged down by somewhat sluggish pacing; the tensions between the characters really begin to amplify about an hour into the nearly two-hour film. The story’s Freudian aspects feel a little shooed-in, and the film sometimes suffers from being overwritten (which may be the point, yet feels somewhat alienating all the same). While the lead trio’s performances are all incredible—perfectly capturing the resigned yet active personalities of their characters—their sense of exhaustion can quickly translate to the viewer as well, especially when the film feels somewhat directionless in its first act.

The Criterion Collection’s 4K digital restoration and 4K UHD presentation of The Grifters looks fantastic, perfectly capturing the contrasts between light and dark hues that propel much of the film’s visual style. Additionally, the physical release includes a notable variety of special features. Among the best: audio commentary with Frears, Cusack, Huston, and Donald E. Westlake (the film’s screenwriter), a new interview with Benning, and a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the film.

(www.criterion.com/films/30526-the-grifters)