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Oct 19, 2024 · Con artist movies offer a captivating mix of humor, drama, and suspense, and the best ones have been tallied in this carefully curated list. With criteria focusing on plot twists, charismatic performances, and the ingenuity behind each scheme, this article brings to light the most thrilling entries in the con artist genre.
- Duncan Carson
- The Sting. No discussion of con artists in cinema is complete without the pinnacle of the genre, 1973's "The Sting." Starring the titans of cinema Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and Robert Shaw, "The Sting" is also the most lauded and successful con artist movie by far.
- Catch Me If You Can. The great Steven Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio joined forces to tell the story of Frank Abagnale Jr., perhaps the greatest American con artist, in "Catch Me If You Can."
- The Brothers Bloom. An early and unheralded film from director Rian Johnson of "Knives Out" fame (and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" infamy), "The Brothers Bloom" might be "the" con artist movie.
- Paper Moon. "Paper Moon" is a classic con artist movie, an ode to a bygone era of the quick small-time grift. Set in the rural stretches of the country during the height of the Great Depression, confidence man Moze Pray (Ryan O'Neal) is content to drift the country and run the quick change scam at diners, or con recently widowed women into believing their late husbands had ordered a special engraved Bible.
- American Hustle
- 21
- Confidence
- Diggstown
- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
- Focus
- The Grifters
- Inception
- Matchstick Men
- Ocean’s 11
Nominated for ten Oscars, American Hustle is a fictional film that follows con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) as he is forced to enter the world of Jersey powerbrokers by an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper), but becomes quickly engrossed. He, along with his partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), must navigate this new world without getting caught, an...
Kevin Spacey is the most believable bad guy in the world, and he absolutely kills it in his role as a twisted college professor in 21. The fact-based story follows six MIT students that Micky Rosa (Spacey) recruited to learn the illegal art of card counting and take their learning to casinos in Vegas to rob them for millions of dollars. Also starri...
Confidence follows Jake Vig (Edward Burns), a grafter on the verge of pulling one of the biggest cons to date, in which he will also avenge his friend’s murder. But, because his last scam backfired after he conned his way into thousands of dollars, he’s indebted to a mob boss (Dustin Hoffman), which makes everything much more difficult. Directed by...
Starring James Woods and Louis Gossett Jr., Diggstown follows Gabriel Caine (Woods) after he’s been released from prison. He immediately sets up a bet with a businessman who happens to own most of Diggstown (known for it’s boxing). The bet? That Gabe can find a boxer that can knock out ten of the town’s boxers within 24 hours. The film is certainly...
More a comedy than anything else, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels stars comedian Steve Martin alongside Michael Caine in a con film that’s fun for everyone. The duo play two con men, Freddy Benson (Martin) and Lawrence Jamieson (Caine), that are attempting to settle a rivalry. To do so, they bet on who is able to con an American heiress (Glenne Headly) out...
A movie centered on deception and misdirection, Focus stars Will Smith as Nicky Spurgeon, a very accomplished con man who takes an amateur con artist, Jess (Margot Robbie), under his wing. The duo quickly realizes the difficulties involved with balancing their criminal life with their personal life, and before long, love seems to only get in the wa...
Starring John Cusack as Roy Dillon, a small-time con man, this film portrays the pull of personal and criminal life in a very dysfunctional familial relationship. Roy finds himself stretched thin between his estranged mother (Anjelica Huston) and his current girlfriend (Annette Bening), both of which are grifters that happen to be playing their own...
Perhaps one of the most innovative con artist films on this list, Inception adds an unreal, almost unbelievable element to the trope that makes it stand out above all else. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a thief that uses new, dream-stealing technology to steal from large companies. In his latest con, he must pull off the biggest heist yet by ...
One of the Nicolas Cage films that’s without a doubt worth watching, Matchstick Men follows Roy Waller (Cage), a neurotic, phobia-prone con artist, as he and his protégé are just about to pull off a con when Waller’s teenage daughter unexpectedly shows up, foiling everything. Ridley Scott directs this con film following the two, small-time con arti...
A remake of the 1960 film starring an all-star cast, including Frank Sinatra, James Dean and Sammy Davis Jr., 2001’s Ocean’s 11 was without a doubt worthy of the title. Following in the original’s footsteps, the all-star cast for the remake includes George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Matt Damon, and that’s only including a few. The film f...
- Victoria Robertson
A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.
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- The Night of the Hunter. Charles Laughton’s legendary directorial debut featuring a priest played to unhinged perfection by Robert Mitchum, heading around to bust out widows for their ‘winnings’, ‘The Night of the Hunter’ is a sublime fusion of noir and thriller for a uniquely indefinable flick that follows all kinds of threads whilst maintaining a lightness and Gothic power that is as simple as it is effective.
- Some Like It Hot. Billy Wilder’s beyond-classic comedy remains one of the funniest films ever made, laying the foundations for pale imitations like ‘White Chicks’ with its guys-as-girls absurdism featuring the timely talents of Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.
- House of Games. Master-writer David Mamet has transitioned from the stage to the screen many a time, taking plays like ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ and transforming them into equally excellent (if abundantly staged) works of cinema. ‘
- The Usual Suspects. To place ‘The Usual Suspects’ on this list is in part to spoil its grand deception. Sufficed to say the only thing I’ve ever taken to about this flick is the final twist, among the most famous in cinema history, and how beautifully it is executed in every discipline of the cinematic form. ‘
Apr 10, 2020 · Here are ten of the best swindler flicks—movies where the truth is elusive and make-believe steals the show. The Sting (1973) The granddaddy of con man movies, The Sting popularized “the wire,” an elaborate swindle that offered insider tips on race results and assured victims they were betting on a horse guaranteed to win.
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Sep 15, 2022 · From timeless classics to modern hits, these 12 movies showcase the best hustlers, thieves, and swindlers on the big screen, whether their cons occur in a casino, a dream, or an overly...
