If there’s one thing history taught us then it certainly must be that things will get worse. Always. Inevitably. The hand you’ve just shaken a minute ago will most definitely be clenched into a fist by the end of the day with the one and only goal to beat you to the ground for good. That’s a prom- ise. A lifelong guarantee. Even after two years there is still an obvious con man sitting in the White House, which a) not only confirms this the- sis but b) also proves that the days when con men were suave, eloquent, and good looking are gone once and for all.

What basically unites all confidence jobs though is that their suc- cessful realization is always based on exploiting human frailties and imbecilities such as greed, enviousness, fear, and anger. So here we are again with another list, which tries to deliver our dear audience a broad overview on essential monumental hoaxes, charming flimflams and spectacular cons captured on celluloid (or memory card), while trying to find just the right balance between rather obvious candidates and slight- ly exotic birds. Enjoy. Keep on fighting the good fight. And stay away from TV psychics.

If Carruth’s overly complicated debut “Primer” was a consciously antiseptic genre-twister pitched by his left brain, then “Upstream Color” certainly works as the fully immersive right brain counterpart as it reveals itself as a modern fairytale (and instant classic) where absolutely nothing is absolute - even the cruel con in the film’s first chapter adds to its transcendental character: a young woman is force-fed some strange maggot-like insect which puts her in a kind of weird hypnotic haze that’s controlled by her kidnapper. After the victim’s bank account is cleared the insect is removed and somehow surgically transferred into the bodies of piglets by a rancher, which then transforms the story into something entirely different and even more metaphorical including nods to Thoreau’s “Walden“, Buddhism and whatnot. “Upstream Color“ is a one-of-a-kind experience, a filmic puzzle whose complexity paradoxically needs to be solved emotionally and not rationally.

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Doc-heavyweight Gibney sinks his teeth into the past of L. Ron Hubbard and present operations of obscure mind cult turned legally protected church Scientology, reminding us that a) current master and commander Miscavige is a god-awful human being and b) that we should actually have second thoughts about watching any Tom Cruise movie at all. Based on Lawrence Wright’s book by the same name “Going Clear“ takes you on the journey into a disturbing psyche of a former sci-fi pulp writer who would stop at absolutely nothing to never pay taxes again, leaving the agnostic audience furious, speechless, and utterly confused about this particular belief system.

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Writer/director Hyams’ highly entertaining conspiracy thriller reflects on the theory that the 1969 moon landing was nothing but an elaborate and very expensive hoax initiated by NASA and the American government in order to keep the dreamof space travel alive. Three astronauts - played by James Brolin, Sam Waterston and former American Dream posterboy OJ Simpson - are taken to a studio in order to enact a Mars landing on an otherwise doomed space mission - unfortunately things then get a little more complicated as NASA suddenly announces that the three heroes unfortunately have been killed during the spectacular journey. And that’s just the beginning of a whole series of twists and turns the movie offers.

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Yeah, I know... “Hereditary” might easily be one of this year’s best movies, but that doesn’t necessarily justify its entry into this list, right? A closer look reveals though that Aster’s terrifying debut actually is a perfect pick. First there’s the brilliant misleading marketing campaign, which tricked you into believing that you’re about to watch the latest addition to the evil child subgenre. Then there’s Toni Colette’s character that subconsciously knows that her life is not her own but that she’s just a figure within a horrific fraud of Machiavellian propor- tions by her creepy mom. Not to forget the con played out by Ann Dowd’s Joan that works as the quintessential catalyst for the film’s bleak conclusion. In the end chaos reigns - and sleeping with the lights on for a couple of nights offers itself as a very comforting imperative.

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Not only one of the best films on social anxiety and an often underestimated gem in Anderson’s - and strangely enough Adam Sandler’s - oeuvre, but a prime example of depicting life’s constant ups and downs thanks to the double bill of frauds on display. For one, there’s the “pudding-fraud“ as Sandler’s Bary Egan discovers a loophole within a Healthy Choice PR-campaign that allows him to collect countless frequent flier miles for basically no money. Then there’s the phone-sex scam initiated by Philip Seymor Hoffman’s character, which turns the already emotionally damaged Barry into a living-breathing time bomb once and for all. Luckily he has a love in his life that makes him stronger than anything you can imagine.

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Depicting the horrific financial crises of 2007-2010 - the infamous bursting of the housing bubble that sparked a global financial meltdown - in a darkly funny and very original way, star-powered “The Big Short“ is one hell of an entertaining lesson in contemporary history and how the financial system and its protégées will always find new schemes to fuck you over big time, as they provide golden parachutes for only a chosen few to make sure that absolutely nothing will change - regardless of how very unpleasant the exposed realities actually are.

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Fallen Broadway producer Max Bialystock is the epitome of a hustler and a con man, someone who’d basically do anything for an extra dollar - including playing the gigolo for raunchy old ladies. When his accountant figures out that a failed show can be way more profitable for its producers than a hit, both sink their teeth into writing the worst thing that ever graced Broadway stages: a musical that’s paying tribute to the gentler side of Nazi-Germany. Besides H.C. Potters “Hellzapoppin“ there hardly is any other movie that has been cited as the blueprint for a very new kind of (tasteless) comedy than Mel Brooks’ charming stroke of genius.

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The reason why there aren’t too many con-woman movies around is that they’re basically labeled as femme fatale flicks from the get-go - and Linda Fiorentino’s Bridget is one of the most frightening representatives of this class: completely ruthless, sexy, good-looking, borderline narcissistic, mercenary, smart as fuck, and never shying away from executing multiple double-crossings. Still men have the tendency to believe they’re able to outsmart their significant other... a very wrong conclusion that either ends in bankruptcy, death, or public humiliation. A very specific and underrated archetype in film.

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You know you’re in for another life-sure-is-stranger-than-fiction adven- ture when there’s a lot more unanswered questions by the end of a documentary than satisfactory conclusions. Even more stunning when the new questions on display prove themselves as being downright disturbing ones. In a nutshell “The Imposter“ reconstructs the incredibly bizarre case of a 23-year-old French con man (known to Interpol as “The Chameleon“) who convinced a grieving Texan family he’s their sixteen-year-old son that disappeared three years earlier - despite speaking with a thick accent and looking nothing like the missing kid. Much more a drama on guilt and atonement, grief and the complex mechanism of denial than a simple documentary, Layton’s non-fiction film has more mind-blowing twists than any M. Night Shyamalan flick.

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This film pleasurably reconstructs the media disaster German weekly paper “Stern“ went through in the 80s, as a sleazy journalist high on sensationalism proclaimed to have gotten hold of Adolf Hitler’s secret diaries. The magazine spent a bit more than nine million Deutschmark for an obvious fake, a con vividly initiated by artist Konrad Kujau who disguised himself as performance artist Konrad Fischer. This was gloriously announced as a “revision for German historiography“ but the whole affair imploded on itself and turned out to be a rather harmful chapter for everyone involved, proving that being a mercenary at all costs wasn’t a misdemeanor - even though it was the 80s.

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Walking the fine line between being an early heavyweight in the “smart dumb comedy“ section and being downright silly and vulgar just for the provocative sake of it, “Kingpin“ isn’t only an underrated laugh-fest but features some of the greatest hairdos and wannabe-accomplished cons - one that ends Roy Munson’s (Woody Harrelson) promising bowling career and another performed as Hezekiah Munson that’s supposed to get him back in the game - in recent movie past. “Kingpin“ is completely owned by Bill Murray’s Ernie McCracken nonetheless - even though his screen time is a rather humble one - one of the most narcissistic and self-centered baddies you’d ever had the pleasure in rooting for.

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Clooney’s directorial debut picks up Chuck Barris’ notorious autobiography - adapted into a script by Charlie Kaufman - in which the creator of “The Dating Show“ and “The Gong Show“ boasts about having assassinated at least 33 individuals as a hit man for the CIA. In fact, Barris as a fictional con-man just loved bringing this kind of storytelling to the grave with him when he died in the spring of 2017. Sam Rockwell is just brilliant as the slightly delusional Barris, a character presumably fed up big time with the garbage he brought to TV to the degree that he fantasized of a less complicated life - one where he’s simply murdering people because he owns a free ticket to do so.

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Back in the 80s, Alan Parker was king and his adaptation of Hjortsberg’s instant classic novel was another brilliant gem although met with an underwhelming box office performance. Playing around with Faustian motifs, “Angel Heart“ portrays a mysterious client with a fetish for hard-boiled eggs and long fingernails who tricks private investigator Harry Angel - who has an aversion to chickens - into a devious journey into the disappearance of former pop singer named Johnny Favorite. This results in a few nasty, occult-related murders and a pretty graphic, incestuous sex scene. The devil was hardly ever depicted as understatedly, yet subtly terrifying as through De Niro’s Louis Cyphre.

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The conspiracy behind the assassination attempt at an (arranged) heavyweight championship fight in Atlanta is actually told quite well, it’s depicted from several points of view, adding information and unfolding truths until everything finally falls into place. The camera work is exceptional, leading man Nic Cage delivers one of the better performances of his career and the staging concept is stylish to the max and flawlessly executed by De Palma. The biggest con job this movie pulls is that it tricks you into believing that you’re actually watching a decent thriller when in actuality it’s an almost unbearable pile of pulp.

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Remember how the US seemed to have lost the race for conquering the moon for good to the Soviets in the late 50s? And how they got saved in the end by Yugoslavia, as Tito was selling their very own secret space program to the Yanks? No? Well, that’s because it never happened like this. Part of the con “Houston“ pulls is that it actually takes quite a while to fully realize you’re actually not watching a mind-blowing doc but a brilliantly executed mockumentary - or “docu-fiction“ as director Virc calls it - resulting in a clever experiment about what people are willing to believe.

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Between “Black Hawk Down“ and the horrible “Kingdom of Heaven“ Scott realized this underrated flick - also known as “Tricks“ or our generation’s “Paper Moon“ - about a phobic con artist. It’s one of those films that are smart, witty, well-acted and technically flawless - yet it somehow won’t be in anyone’s favorite movie countdown. “Matchstick Men’s“ biggest ace up its sleeve is that it’s consciously lulling you with a massive assembly of clichés - which then joyfully collapse in an imploding final chapter.

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The thriller that single-handedly put Argentina back on the movie-map (again) basically is an exercise in zeit- geist-filmmaking as it is combines a clever script with innovative direction to very stylish results - it feels a bit as if Tarantino is working his magic on a Ma- met script. The biggest impact sure leaves Nine Queens’ first chapter, which sees our two hustling protagonists demonstrating a whole variety of different cons to each other before they have to decide whether they should trust each other to work together on a big-scale scam.

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Obviously no countdown about hustler movies is complete without a poker flick - because the game is one fine con-job in itself, tricking gamblers into thinking that everybody can play it. As a matter of fact, poker is a skill game disguised as one about chance that has more than just one elaborate bluff up its sleeve. Steve McQueen stars as a young poker stud who challenges champ Edward G. Robinson in a high-stakes match - and even though the film’s third act in particular focuses entirely on the game, “The Cincinnati Kid” is much more an exercise in mood than a suspenseful drama, a great ensemble piece that strangely still feels superior to Rossen’s “The Hustler“ in our book.

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The ending might be one of the most unsatisfying ones I’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t imply that “The Prestige“ is a film you cannot enjoy - because as a matter of fact this is Nolan at his most entertaining. The story about the feud between two magicians in Victorian London is deliberately designed like an act performed by a heavily skilled wannabe-wizard, and it’s surprisingly dark in doing so, offering bleak observations on obsession, triumph, progress, and the masculine sense of ownership.

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