Rating: 
Summary: Favorite movie!
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: One of my all-time favorites
Review: Hysterical black comedy. Brilliant performances and nuanced acting. Feels more like a small independent film. Great film. One of my all time favorites.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding!!!
Review: I have seen this work of art several times in the VHS format and once on DVD (I don't agree with Wide Screen's review of the DVD; I found the cinemaphotogray/lighting to be entrancing and enhancing to the various scenes). Other Amazon reviewers have pretty well covered the plot and some have (rightfully so) observed the fine acting. The final scene between mother and son are the epitome of survival of the fittest, and still leave me slackjawed. Maybe that's why I have seen it more than once and want to watch it again and have placed my order for a copy on DVD. I know it's hard for some people to accept a mother like this, but they are out there, and not necessarily in the world of gangsters. Also, I suppose the ending makes some viewers forget just how caring this mother really is, as when she threatens her son's doctor with death (and we know she can follow through with this threat)if anything happens to her son.
Rating: 
Summary: Grift
Review: I like the idea of an underground group of people who are souly driven by money. I love this movie b/c my girlfriend at the time freaked out in the theater and ran out. She couldn't believe they would make such a violent movie. THE HORROR!It was the scene where he gets the glass in the throat. I'm still erked that he was sleeping with his om though.
Rating:
Summary: Roy Still Can't Compete With Oedipus
Review: I was kind of upset that John Cusack didn't get nominated for an award. Anjelica Huston and whats-her-name were, and though Huston deserved it, whats-her-name was no better, if not worse, than Cusack. The fact that I can't even remember her name says it all. Oh yeah, it's Annette Bening. I knew it would come to me eventually. But she had a nude scene, so maybe that explains it all. She was good in American Beauty. The acting is great and it is an interesting enough plot. But I own the DVD, and yet, ever since I bought it, I have not watched the movie again. I haven't been in the mood to sit through it again, I guess.
Oh, and Roy can't compete with Oedipus. Though his mother is worse than Jocasta.
Rating:
Summary: The best of the genre
Review: I'm at a loss for words at how truly amazing this film truly is. The amazing cinematography gives an almost hitchcock flair to the movie. Truly Stephen Frears' masterpiece
Rating:
Summary: The Details Count
Review: I'm tired of people whining that this film doesn't have enough "grifting" or enough "con-artist"-type stuff going on. The title is a metaphor for desperate, cynical people living the underside of the American dream, and it's a stunning tragedy that explores much more than an ordinary con-job.Cusack is good (as always) playing the noir underdog. Benning is deliciously inventive, concealing a femme fatale under a well-delivered coquette routine. The real star, however, is Huston in those towering high-heels "getting what she wants, or else." And with this film, it's the details that count, whether it's a cigar burn, a glass of water with a surprising fate, or Myra's and Lily's conspicuously identicle wardrobe (don't underestimate the suggestive power of their identity switch at the end.) Another great detail is the DVD re-release that has THE BEST menu graphics I've seen in a long time (especially check out the chapter menu) and the extras are pretty amusing. Commentary is okay, but I would have hoped to hear Cusack, Huston, and Benning all together instead of in separate interviews, and Frears kinda rambles sometimes. Overall, it's a great film, and the DVD makes the experience even greater.
Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Stephen Frears' Best Work
Review: If, like me, you saw and loved Stephen Frears' 2003 outing "Dirty Pretty Things" (starring Audrey Tautou in her first English-speaking role), consider going back and watching what is arguably his finest effort, "The Grifters." This is a wonderful movie featuring three very talented actors. In 1990, John Cusack was just transitioning into adult roles, in much the same way his character Roy Dillon is doing. A perfect fit. Annette Benning lets it all hang out, as she has done with all of her performances, even after ascending into Hollywood royalty as Mrs. Warren Beatty. Despite those stellar performances, they're still no match for Angelica Huston. She is truly magnetic as Cusak's mother, Lilly. Also worthy of note is long-time character actor Pat Hingle's turn as Lilly's boss, Bobo Justus. It's essentially a cameo role, but it's the performance that stands out foremost in my mind two months after viewing.
Rating:
Summary: Stephen Frears' Best Work
Review: If, like me, you saw and loved Stephen Frears' 2003 outing "Dirty Pretty Things" (starring Audrey Tautou in her first English-speaking role), consider going back and watching what is arguably his finest effort, "The Grifters." This is a wonderful movie featuring three very talented actors. In 1990, John Cusack was just transitioning into adult roles, in much the same way his character Roy Dillon is doing. A perfect fit. Annette Benning lets it all hang out, as she has done with all of her performances, even after ascending into Hollywood royalty as Mrs. Warren Beatty. Despite those stellar performances, they're still no match for Angelica Huston. She is truly magnetic as Cusak's mother, Lilly. Also worthy of note is long-time character actor Pat Hingle's turn as Lilly's boss, Bobo Justus. It's essentially a cameo role, but it's the performance that stands out foremost in my mind two months after viewing.
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