The Criterion Collection always tries to curate releases that get the cinephile community excited and talking about their addition to Criterion’s Closet and film lovers’ shelves. The quality of release is always top-notch as it’s filled with a plethora of feathers and new critical writings along with the presentation being the best the film could have. This is mostly proven, yet again, in Stephen Frears’s (High Fidelity; Dangerous Liaisons) first Hollywood film, The Grifters, which is also produced by Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon). The Grifters is a gritty look at the dirty side of Americana and the true chaos that can unfold from it.
Anjelica Huston as Lily in THE GRIFTERS. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
The Grifters focuses on Roy Dillon (John Cusack) who’s a small-time grifter, typically turning his tricks at a bar by swapping out bills with a slight-of-hand ploy and gaining change by being a wordsmith, nothing too extravagant or over the top. His girlfriend, on the other hand, Myra (Annette Bening) has higher grifting aspirations and manages to have a few more tricks up her sleeve which allow her to pull off some bigger scores. Roy wants to learn how to get better at grifting and enlists some help despite truly not having the skills to pull it off. Myra has a good ploy going on where she uses her sex appeal to get what she wants, but Lily (Anjelica Huston), Roy’s mother, who tried to teach Roy the ropes, has been grifting so long that she sees everyone as a mark and doesn’t even put Roy above that. However, she plays it a little too lose and things get dodgy for her (grifting sports is never a good idea), but when she visits Roy and finds out his small-time grifting got his butt handed to him and he’s not doing well, she takes matters into her own hands. She wants to ensure her son’s safety, no matter the cost, and he can’t see the true face of either his lover or his mother. While The Grifters is a seething look at toxicity in America and life, it is a dark, gritty, cut-throat slow burn that seeps deep into the audience and creates a skin-crawling environment.
Annette Bening as Myra in THE GRIFTERS. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
While The Grifters truly doesn’t hold back in its exploration of toxicity, self-preservation, and the American dream, per say, it’s all culminated by Donald E. Westlake (The Stepfather) who penned the adaptation and received an Academy Award nomination for it. Everything is deliberate in the script. Nothing feels forced or misplaced, and the simplicity of each character’s passion, desire, and motive isn’t reinventive by any means. The performances by Huston (The Addams Family; The French Dispatch), Cusack (High Fidelity; Chi-Raq), and Bening (The American President) are incredible and are all masterfully directed by Frears, who got nominated for his directorial outing. Bening and Huston got nominated in ‘91 for Academy Awards as their portrayals were nothing shy of cut-throat and intense.
L-R: Anjelica Huston as Lily and Pat Hingle as Bobo Justus in THE GRIFTERS. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Now, getting down to the prowess of this new 4K Criterion (and also Blu-ray). I am not one of those people that are 4K-or-die. I believe as long as something comes out on physical media, it is a win for all physical media fans alike. This appears to be the first Blu-ray of The Grifters in over a decade (the first and only other North American release is a Miramax Classics 2013 release that seems incredibly bare bones). The audio appears to be the same as that prior release which is a DTS HD Master in 2.0, but the picture quality has been upgraded to 4K with HDR and Dolby Vision which was supervised by Director of Photography Oliver Stapleton. While the film does look fantastic, it’s almost nearly entirely missing grain with the exception of a few scenes where grain is incredibly noticeable. For a movie that is so gritty and focused on toxicity, I think some grain throughout would’ve been great, but the colors still feel muted. With that being said, I decided to scrub through the included Blu-ray and noticed there wasn’t a vast difference between the criterion Blu-ray disk and their 4K disk. So, with that being said, because the 4K comes with the Blu-ray, it’s worth the slight price difference just so one owns all the formats currently presented for this release, especially in the name of future-proofing this part of your collection.
L-R: John Cusack as Roy and Anjelica Huston as Lily in THE GRIFTERS. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
The features on this Criterion aren’t as bountiful as other releases, but quality over quantity is always best, and the quantity of these five features is incredible. The commentary is always something that is interesting to listen to, but the making-of documentary and the Jim Thompson story features are arguably the cream of the crop on the release along with the insightful essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien. It is important to note, as well, the 4K UHD disk is a 100 GB disk and does not include the special features. They are solely located on the Blu-ray disk of this release, as well.
The Grifters Special Features:
- *NEW* 4K digital restoration, approved by director of photography Oliver Stapleton, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring director Stephen Frears, actors John Cusack and Anjelica Huston, and screenwriter Donald E. Westlake
- *NEW* Interview with actor Annette Bening
- Short making-of documentary featuring Cusack, Frears, Huston, Westlake, and production designer Dennis Gassner
- Seduction, Betrayal, Murder: The Making of “The Grifters,” featuring interviews with Frears, Stapleton, editor Mick Audsley, executive producer Barbara De Fina, and coproducer Peggy Rajski
- The Jim Thompson Story, featuring Westlake and Robert Polito, biographer of The Grifters novelist Jim Thompson
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien
- *NEW* cover by Drusilla Adeline/Sister Hyde
Available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection January 21st, 2025.
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Categories: Home Release, Recommendation
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