The Grifters is a 1990 American neo-noir[1] crime thriller film directed by Stephen Frears, produced by Martin Scorsese, and starring John Cusack, Anjelica Huston, and Annette Bening.

She works for Bobo Justus, a mob bookmaker, making large cash bets at race tracks to lower the odds of longshots.

On her way to La Jolla for a race, she stops in Los Angeles to visit her son, Roy, a small-time hustler she has not seen in eight years.

At the hospital, Lilly meets and takes an instant dislike to Roy's girlfriend, Myra Langtry, who is slightly older than her son.

For this mistake, Bobo punches her in the stomach and insinuates he will beat her with oranges wrapped in a towel, causing permanent damage, but he burns her hand with a cigar instead.

She uses her sex appeal on a jeweler to get what she wants for a bracelet she is trying to pawn, and when her landlord demands payment of late rent, she lures him into bed in lieu of paying him the money.

Later, Roy is called by the Phoenix police to identify his mother's body, found in a motel room with the face disfigured by a gunshot wound.

Lilly angrily swings a briefcase at Roy just as he is taking a drink of water, shattering the glass and sending shards into his neck, which cause him to bleed to death.

[4] The British filmmaker was drawn to Thompson's "tough and very stylistic" writing and described it, "as if pulp fiction meets Greek tragedy".

Frears contacted Westlake who agreed to reread the Thompson novel but, after doing so, turned the project down, citing the story as "too gloomy."

[9] Although she was "transfixed" by the story and the character, a scene in the script where Lilly is beaten so violently by Bobo Justus with a sack of oranges that she defecates alarmed her with its explicitness.

[9] Still wavering, Huston's talent agent Sue Mengers told her bluntly "Anjelica, if Stephen Frears tells you he wants you to shit in the corner, then that's what you must do.

[9] Annette Bening explained that she accepted being full frontally nude in this film because she felt the scenes were comedic rather than dramatic.

The site's consensus reads, "Coolly collected and confidently performed, The Grifters is a stylish caper that puts the artistry in con".

[14] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave The Grifters 4 stars out of 4, praising the lead performances and the script, which he thought more accurately captured the essence of film noir better than any in recent memory.