What’s it rated? R
When? 2023
Where’s it showing? Apple TV Plus
Benjamin Caron (The Crown) directs this nonlinear grifter story about various confidence games being played out in New York City by several “sharpers,” or swindlers. Who’s conning who is part of the fun as these interlayered stories unfold, with each new segment offering a new reveal. It begins with Tom (Justice Smith), who runs a small bookstore and meets Sandra (Briana Middleton), a potential love interest whose background is complicated and murky.
Later we meet Max (Sebastian Stan) and his “mother” Madeline (Julianne Moore), who’s living with billionaire Richard Hobbes (John Lithgow), who also happens to be Tom’s father by a previous relationship. Mild-mannered Tom is a deep disappointment to his cutthroat businessman father, but Tom is also Richard’s heir apparent. With this kind of money at play, the stakes are high.
The story is cleverly assembled, and the acting is riveting as one swindler after another tries to one-up the other and stay ahead of the current “game.” The twists and turns kept on coming, and while the film isn’t as fun as The Sting (1973) or as slick as The Grifters (1990), it’s a worthy entry into this very specific genre and free with your Apple TV subscription. (116 min.) Δ
This article appears in Mar 2-12, 2023.