{"id":5351,"date":"2017-01-09T17:57:31","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T22:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=5351"},"modified":"2026-10-19T14:23:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T18:23:52","slug":"the-grifters-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=5351","title":{"rendered":"The Grifters-1990"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Grifters-1990<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Director Stephen Frears<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Starring John Cusack, Anjelica Huston<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott&#8217;s Review #597<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/TheGrifters.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-23267\" src=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/TheGrifters-189x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"189\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/TheGrifters-189x300.jpg 189w, https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/TheGrifters.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 189px) 100vw, 189px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Reviewed January 9, 2017<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade: B-<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Grifters (1990) is a witty, broad-appeal film.<\/p>\n<p>It is unique and quirky, in the style of a charismatic film noir from the golden age of film, the 1930s and 1940s.<\/p>\n<p>The film also has a sharp, clean look.<\/p>\n<p>The performances, especially Anjelica Houston, are excellent. All three leads (John Cusack, Annette Bening, and the others) give fantastic performances and feed off each other, so the chemistry works quite well.<\/p>\n<p>Cusack plays a small-time crook named Roy Dillon, inept in some ways, and estranged from his mother (Huston).<\/p>\n<p>When she returns to town, she, along with his girlfriend (Bening), attempts to con and outmaneuver each other for their gain.<\/p>\n<p>The film is set in sunny Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>As compelling as the film sounds on paper, I did not find myself completely captured by it. It took me a while to get into the film, and by the time I finally did, it had ended.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, well-made and respectable; I can see how some people would love it, but for me, something was still missing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Director-Stephen Frears, Best Actress-Anjelica Huston, Best Supporting Actress-Annette Bening, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium<\/p>\n<p><strong>Golden Globe Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Actress-Drama-Anjelica Huston<\/p>\n<p><strong>Independent Spirit Award Nominations: 2 wins-<\/strong>Best Feature <strong>(won)<\/strong>, Best Female Lead-Anjelica Huston <strong>(won)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Grifters-1990 Director Stephen Frears Starring John Cusack, Anjelica Huston Scott&#8217;s Review #597 Reviewed January 9, 2017 Grade: B- The Grifters (1990) is a witty, broad-appeal film. It is unique and quirky, in the style of a charismatic film noir from the golden age of film, the 1930s and 1940s. The film also has a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=5351\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Grifters-1990<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,356,225,192,271,182],"tags":[1691,1692,1693,9505,10671,11419,11420,1278,415,4507,1690,10090,10481],"class_list":["post-5351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1990-films","category-best-feature-independent-spirit-award","category-crime-dramas","category-dramas","category-film-noir","category-mobfilms","tag-anjelica-huston","tag-annette-bening","tag-charles-napier","tag-frances-bay","tag-henry-jones","tag-j-t-walsh","tag-jeremy-piven","tag-john-cusack","tag-martin-scorsese-films","tag-pat-hingle","tag-stephen-frears","tag-sy-richardson","tag-xander-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5351"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24862,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5351\/revisions\/24862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}