In Pictures: 6 more great movies about social engineering and con artists

The Grifters

The plot centers around three con artists trying to outwit one another. The players are Roy Dillon (John Cusack), Myra Langtry (Annette Bening) and Lilly Dillon (Anjelica Huston).

Roy is a small-time swindler who fixes dice games and pulls simple social engineering cons, such as showing a bartender a $20 and then quietly switching it for a $10 (which backfires when the bartender proves to be both alert and aggressive).

Myra wants to team up with Roy for a long con. Lilly, Roy’s mother, works for a sports-gambling operation, and visits racetracks to place large bets at the last minute to manipulate the odds.