The Grifters – 4K 01/11/25

What a great picture to see bumped to 4K … when that grinding Elmer Bernstein cue launches the titles, we know we’re in for a hardboiled experience. Roy, Lilly and Myra are highly attractive ‘poison’ people in their own cheap rackets — hooking, fixing racetrack odds and grifting — practicing petty con-man ripoffs on unsuspecting ‘suckers.’ They’re bad enough separately but any combo is toxic. The great director Stephen Frears guides John Cusack, Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening into some of the best performances of their careers. It’s the best filmic adaptation of Jim Thompson. On 4K Ultra-HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
01/11/25