There’s a swelling sea of scandalous characters on streaming out there right now.
Streaming sure is squished full of movies about these con artists, thieves, crooks, cheats, hustlers, and swindlers – what you’d call a bad guy or gal, so to speak. When you plunge into their world, clutching the couch as you go along for the ride, do you root for them to get away with it, or do you want to see them brought to justice?
If the tale we’re taking in is based on a true story, framed around some real person that existed and got away with or got busted for something ingenious, even if it’s illegal, all the better. What are the 10 best adaptations of those swindlers and con artists to watch right now? Let’s find out.
10. The Tinder Swindler (Netflix – 2022)
Recent, relevant, ridiculous but yet somehow real. The performances make you so enraged at the devious man, Simon Leviv — who is so punchable — that you can’t stop watching and hoping someone gets the better of him and actually maybe punches him in the face (or the crotch). In hindsight, with the audience knowing he’s a crook, it’s amazing to see how he keeps swindling women and getting away with it. And for sure the blood boils all over again when you learn at the end that he was caught, exposed, and yet got away with it all and rebooted his entire fake, showy existence all over again, and is dating a model. What a turd.
9. Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (Netflix – 2019)
Fyre Fraud (Hulu – 2019)
It still remains fascinating, even astounding, how this one was pulled off. And it broke back into our consciousness once it was mentioned in another movie on our list. It’s not the first time anyone has pointed out that there are two movies about how Hollywood’s denizens got completely bamboozled and humiliated. Throw a party with your friends, pump up the jams beforehand, then watch both movies about the biggest fake party that never was.
8. WeCrashed (Apple TV – 2022)
Engaging, engrossing, enveloping – the story of how WeWork went way, way up and crashed way, way down is captivating. Add in some seriously sinister acting performances from Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway, and you’ll be drawn into their world from start to finish.
There’s real success and genuine scam going on here at the same time, with Adam and Rebekah Neumann — played by Leto and Hathaway, respectively — working their charms to screw over plenty of made-to-seem naïve folks. It’s another one that’s based on a podcast, called WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork by Wondery.
7. The Dropout (Hulu — 2022)
It really is amazing the lengths people will go to for fortune, even scamming and lying to those hoping for a miracle. Actually, that’s at the heart of it a lot of times when people who seem to have no heart make up elaborate hoaxes, such as the one by Elizabeth Holmes as portrayed here by Amanda Seyfried. There are some laughs in this one but by the end, you’re a bit peeved, a bit sad, and a bit perplexed, which is a somewhat satisfying end to these kinda flicks. The CEO of health tech startup Theranos — who was just blatantly making shit up — has inspired more than one movie as well, including the very solid 2019 film The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (the title for that one is better, but The Dropout was the better film of the two).
Plus, we always love it when Naveen Andrews comes back into our lives. Not to mention the first four episodes are wonderfully directed by Michael Showalter.
6. Dirty John (Netflix – 2018)
Gripping performances, tough subject matter, and revenge. The recipe is all laid out here, with Connie Britton and Julia Garner, along with Eric Bana, bringing the goods (that’s a bit tongue-in-cheek) in season one, then Amanda Peet carrying season two.
Making the show even more captivating is that it’s based on Christopher Goffard’s podcast — which shares the same name — giving this show a big boost from the throngs of con artist podcast fans.
5. The Thing About Pam (Peacock – 2022)
Sometimes you don’t realize you miss seeing someone on screen until bam!, there they are again. That’s the case here with Renée Zellweger, morphing herself into someone entirely different all over again with aplomb. Playing Pam Hupp, you can’t help but root for this grifter to do something good, to even get away with the horrible things she does, but that’s only because you’re rooting for Renée. It’s not often you get this much comedy in a murder mystery, you’ll have to decide for yourself whether that’s good or bad, appropriate or not.
4. Inventing Anna (Netflix – 2022)
Does this get a recency bias boost? A little bit. Is the accent hard to get past? A little bit. Are Anna Chlumsky and Julia Garner just frigging phenomenal in their roles and performances? A lot bit.
Any fan of Veep and Ozark won’t be able to stop binging this one. And for fans of Veep, you find a little bit of Amy Brookheimer in Vivian Kent, both played expertly by Chlumsky, who is just hoping that in this version she gets to have love and the career, instead of getting the runaround (and worse) that she suffers in Veep.
And can’t you just hear that voice in your head saying, “Anna Delvey” in Garner’s bizarro European yet somehow southern drawl?
3. American Hustle (Hulu, Amazon Prime Video – 2013)
We’re not sure if it’s the sum of the parts that puts this one up so high for us, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. Sure, the story isn’t top-notch, and even the hustle isn’t the most spellbinding, but damn, the performances — and costumes and setting — coming from this movie are mesmerizing. Outstanding work done by Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and for sure, Christian Bale here.
There’s good reason why it was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars (though it was shut out). Add on top of that noms for Bale, Adams, Cooper, and Lawrence for all the top four acting categories (all shut out as well), and well, just writing this makes me want to go watch it again right now. Did you know that the 10 Academy Award nominations with zero wins for American Hustle is the second-most for any movie in history?
2. Dirty Money (Netflix – 2018)
If you love to hate the filthy rich, and especially the rich who act absolutely filthy, then this series will have you throwing things at the screen and hoping for some accountability in this world that seems to be scamming everyone from the bottom-up. Or is it top-down? Either way, the rich get richer, and a lot of people out there will do whatever it takes to get to the top, and stay on top, even in the face of indecency and suffering. Make sure you do a little meditation and light some sage before you go into any episode of this two-season show, though, and take a shower to clean the filth off afterward.
It goes to show that sometimes when you put a docuseries in a documentarian’s hands, such as Alex Gibney, some great things can come out of it.
1. Catch Me If You Can (Netflix – 2002)
You could put Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio opposite each other in just about any film, any genre, any storyline, and it would be pure gold. Throw in intrigue, charisma, intelligence, some genuinely sad moments, and the eventual bond that grows between the two characters, and this is probably the most re-watchable movie on here. Throw in riveting performances from Christopher Walken, Jennifer Garner, Martin Sheen, and Nathalie Baye, and you’ve got a blockbuster.
You might hate DiCaprio’s character, Frank William Abagnale, Jr., if played by someone else. And you might think Hanks’ character, FBI agent Carl Hanratty, was a buffoon if put in lesser hands. Together though, the on-screen chemistry exudes right off of the screen from the get-go, and you even get a feel-good moment for everyone involved by the end.
In the end, our list may be a bit heavy on shows that came out within the last year (and definitely a lot of Netflix in there), but that’s because the steaming services are following what audiences crave right now. Expect a lot more of these series and films to pop up over the next year-plus before we move onto another genre. Then again, the way the podcasts are proliferating and staying consistently in the zeitgeist, maybe even longer.