Customer Reviews

Grifters [VHS]

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Stephen Frears, THE GRIFTERS is a winner. With three top actors, Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening and John Cusack, Frears invites us to a non-stop ride to hell.

Caught between his mother and his girl-friend, John Cusack will have a hard time to survive and become a man. You can almost touch the hate those two women feel for each other. Their last encounter is really a scene you will remember : set in Phoenix, in a motel, in a subtle variation of PSYCHO's first murder, it is a moment of great cinema.

Cusack is outstanding as the gentle grifter, Frear's cinematography is first class and Anjelica has never been so devilish. No doubt about it, THE GRIFTERS is a masterpiece of the film noir genre.

A DVD that bleeds.

A fantastic movie about con artists. The tone of this movie is perfect: utterly unsentimental, deadpan, cool and calculated. Great score, great performances (not just the three leads, there are tons of bit parts that are very memorable), great dialogue. The pacing is snappy. I'm not going to say the movie is flawless, but honestly I can't think of anything particularly negative to say about it.

The DVD is a modest collector's edition. Some may say the extra features are a bit spare, but what is here is very useful and informative. The commentary track is consistantly listenable. There are four participants: the director, the screenwriter, and stars Cusack and Huston. The four were recorded separately and edited together seamlessly to make an entertaining and insightful track. Also here are two short but well-made featurettes, one covers the making of the film and the other sheds some light on the work of the author who wrote the book upon which the film is based.

I've never been a John Cusack fan, but he's utterly riveting in the role of a coming-of-age grifter caught between two indelible women. Annette Bening, at least here, is a pure force of nature, a sexy tsunami overwhelming everything in her path. And Anjelica Huston??? Her entire career has been one splendid performance after another, and this is one of her finest. You simply cannot take your eyes off her. The interaction of these three is one of the best examples of ensemble acting outside of an Altman film. And the little subtleties around these three -- from the brilliant set piece of the orange scene to the almost-identical dresses worn by Lily and Myra to Elmer Bernstein's moody score -- make The Grifters a compelling experience. The only disappointment is that the CD has NO extras at all, but you could certainly make the case that this is a movie that can stand completely on its own.

Perhaps this was the best directorial accomplishment for Stephen Frears. Perhaps it was the roles of a lifetime for Huston, Cusack and Bening. Perhaps, no definitely, it was the best crime film of its time.

THE GRIFTERS... I won't go into the plot. Other reviewers have done enough. But it does poke at some old questions. Is there honor among thieves? No, not really. But can there be respect? Yes, I think the film brings that out. What about love? Ooof! That's a tough one.

IF you've seen the movie, and liked it, the commentaries are wonderful. But even more important is the glimpse at the life of Jim Thompson whose novel inspired the film. The making of THE GRIFTERS is equally intriguing. I'm no grifter, although at times I wish I were... But still, trust me, this Collector's Series is worth the reasonable price.

The Grifters is one of the most underrated films ever made in my opinion.

Oedipal conflicts simmer and ultimately boil over in a timeless American landscape populated by small time con artists, a brutal mafia boss and a dysfunctional mother and son whose reunion initiates many of the diverse plot twists and turns.

Houston's masterful performance is delivered with such blistering intensity that you can smell the burning celluloid as she wiggles her way across the screen.

The other performances are very fine indeed, this is definitely a movie that connoisseurs of fine acting will enjoy.

The pace is fast moving and engaging, the filmic equivalent of a page-turner, I'm easily bored and distracted, and this movie had me gripped until the final incredible scene.

One of the things I really appreciate about The Grifters are the way that the frailty of the human body is communicated realistically. No chairs splintering over people's heads or men punching each other repeatedly in the face before getting up again for more.

A swift pool cue handle jammed into in the guts is enough to cause a critical organ rupture, a small burn on the back of the hand is agonising and the damage done by a drinking glass is unimaginably worse than intended. I'm not going to even discuss the terrifying scene involving a bag of oranges. Just like in real life, violence is swift, unpredictable and causes all kinds of visible and hidden damage.

The other thing I really liked was the way that each of the characters had different personas depending on who they were relating to and the situation they found themselves in. Lily could be a tender mother to her injured son one moment, the next she becomes a monster as she threatens an innocent doctor, telling him she will have him killed unless her son recovers fully.

The evil gangster Bobo is terrifyingly sadistic in his punishment of a female underling, the next almost paternal as he lends her his overcoat so she can leave his home with her injuries hidden. With the coat wrapped around her trembling shoulders and stuttering with terror she compliments Bobo on his suit, telling him that he looks tall in it.

I found that moment of the movie symbolic of the whole, on one level The Grifters is all about the masks people wear to survive in their terrifying and desperate world. Things are hidden and things are revealed. People higher up the chain must be appeased, those lower down can be screwed mercilessly. Nothing is secure; nothing can be relied on to be good or true.

The complex plot twists of betrayal; manipulation, incest and murder are reminiscent of the celebrated BBC production of I Claudius. The inevitability of the characters' doomed fates, the ruthlessness with which they try to escape them and the way that the disparate plot elements resolve themselves suggest that this is a classical Greek tragedy set in modern America.

I don't want to give too much away so will say no more other than to highly recommend the film. The music and cinematography is great too. A masterpiece.

"The Grifters" is a great realization of writer Jim Thompson's pulp novel to the screen. Kudos to director Stephen Frears and Donald Westlake's screenplay for translating this work to the screen. The film concerns itself with a trio of con artists but the mark this time is the soul of one of these combatants. Lily(Anjelica Huston) has been at this game practically from the womb but she discourages her son, Roy(John Cusack), from the grift. Roy's current squeeze, Myra(Annette Bening) has different plans for him. Myra has done the big con and she sees Roy as her meal ticket to easy street. Huston has never been better as the grifter with questionable maternal instincts. Bening superficial sweetness betrays an interior of larceny. Roy, though he does not have the stomach for the big grift, is not blind to the machinations of Lily and Myra. Cusack does an excellent job showing bemusement as these two mother hens fight over him. "The Grifters" has enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat. It's inevitable conclusion is so shocking that I dare not reveal it here. Just marvel at some very talented artists that are on the top of their game.

In my opinion after Good Fellas, The Grifters was by far the best movie of 1990. Unfortunately both movies came out in a year that members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided that Kevin Costner's over praised Dances With Wolves was the best thing that had happened to the film world since the money making PG-13 rating.

Readers of my reviews may know that I hate to give away even the smallest detail in trying to express whether I liked a movie or not, so all that I will say is that the movie involves three characters involved in different types of con games, a theme that was explored in a wickedly delectable fashion in Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liasons. What makes both of these movies so exciting is that although they all have elements of violence, the most potent weapons used are the brain and the heart. All characters are flawed in one way or another, their actions are believable, and most of the time the consequences of said actions will lead to something that cannot be stopped.

The three leading performers are John Cusack, Angelica Houston, and Annette Benning. Both Huston and Benning were nominated for the Oscar, but both were robbed of the gold by more showy performances by Kathy Bates and Whoopi Goldberg, in Misery and Ghost, respectively. John Cusack and the movie itself were not even nominated. At least Stephen Frears finally received a well-deserved nomination for Direction as he was ignored for Dangerous Liaisons.

Angelica Houston gives one of the gutsiest and most unsentimental performances ever filmed. Annette Benning has never been better. She's like a cat in this movie and uses her body and intelligence to create an illusion of what she wants people to see. John Cusack, who rarely if ever has hit a false note in his career, brings surprising humanity and a defiance to create a character that is hard to forget. Every single supporting performance, especially Pat Hingle and J.T. Walsh, make a strong impression and serve to give the movie a strong base to take its challenging path without ever feeling like it has cheated the audience in any of its multiple surprises.

In a nutshell, although the story is very well crafted, it's the direction and performances that make this movie resonate. It's simply a joy to watch actors at the top of their game, and for me it was a hoot to see Annette Benning to her thing as this was the first time that I had seen any of her work. When I see a movie like this, which I just saw for the first time since it first came out, I am reminded of how much I love movies made for adults and made without the commercial tie-ins, focus groups, and ratings considerations that seem to rule the industry with more frequency. Don't get me wrong, I too enjoy a well made pop-corn summer flick, but it is movies like The Grifters that stay with you long after you see them. More recent examples include 1997's underrated The Ice Storm and Jackie Brown as well as 2000's Memento. If you like movies that look into the dark places of the mind, are unapologetically unsentimental, and focus on characters who are not cardboard stereotypes, this one is for you. One note, it's not a movie for kids as there are some scenes and ideas that are already hard to watch as an adult.

This is an extremely entertaining and fascinating look into the lives of con-men and con-women. Angelica Huston gives her best performance as the icy blonde con-mother of Roy, she is simply masterful in this film. John Cusack also gives his best and grittiest performance as Roy, a small-time con who wants to get out. Annette Bening is also excellent as Roy's knockout girlfriend who is looking for the long-con. The split-screen introduction sequence is great. Stephen Frears directs with cold assurance. Fascinating characters and plot, intelligent sharp dialogue and 3 powerhouse performances. One of the best movies of 1990. Extras: that's Martin Scorcese's voice narrating at the beginning of the film, he also produced. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 9!

Ever since Sunday, August 22nd, when listing my favorite movies, The Grifters is right near the top. (other favorites are Katharine Hepburn movies and The Addams Family) The acting is superb, the plot is a LITTLE confusing, but I've been told to read the book, so I will. I love everything about this movie though. The reason I saw it was because Anjelica Huston was in it, and my friend and I were having an AH/Adam Baldwin film festival. For some reason, I was REALLY looking forward to The Grifters, and it fulfilled all of my expectations. When she got burned.... I had to squeeze my friend's finger until I nearly broke it! Not meaning to sound trite, but you really were right there with her. Everyone should see this!

Reading the back cover of the tape I was pretty sure I would not like the movie. I rented it, saw it, and had to decide I was right. "The Grifters" can be appreciated and valued for the spectacular dialogue and acting -- but the subject matter prevents such a bland reaction as 'liking'. Personally, I was downright fascinated and absorbed! There is absolutely no moral center to the movie, no leading lesson, and that allowed me to concentrate not on so much on the action as on the interactions among the characters.

Incidentally, the scenes between Anjelica Huston and John Cusack, from the very beginning to the end, are probably the best I have ever seen.