December Movie Marathon: Cons and Heists

I love movies about grifters (con men, in North American parlance). I just do. There's something of the lovable rogue archetype to it, of course, but it also appeals to my puzzle-solving side, crafting the perfect plan, seeing it fall apart, improvising over the bad spots. And I generally like films that deftly lie to you (because your POV is limited, not because the movie cheats), then reveal what was really happening. I love shows like Hustle and Leverage (and Mission: Impossible because, come on, that's about con jobs more than it is about spies). I've seen David Mamet's entire oeuvre, and plenty more besides. Con stories and heists too, which I consider to be part of the con genre. So many, I wondered if I would be able to finds 31 con films of good quality for my now-annual December Movie Marathon(2014's, 2015's, 2016's).

After accidentally managing to watch a horror flick a day in October, I thought maybe I didn't need to marathon in December at all, but I can't help myself. I did all this research into cinematic cons and heists, I've got to go through with it.

So here then is my list of thematically relevant movies, in seven broad categories.

Fridays: HEISTS
Le Cercle Rouge
Heist
The Italian Job (2003)
The Score
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Saturdays: ROMANCE GETS IN THE WAY
The Bank Job
Duplicity
I Love You Phillip Morris
Quick Change
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

Sundays: CONS
Confidence
Nine Queens
Paper Moon
Six Degrees of Separation
Smoke and Mirrors

Mondays: TRAINS (and Christmas)
Deidra and Laney Rob a Train
The First Great Train Robbery
The Great Train Robbery 2-part mini-series
Bad Santa (on Christmas day)

Tuesdays: SCOUNDREL VERSUS SCOUNDREL
The Grifters
Inside Man
The Lookout
RocknRolla

Wednesdays: CLASSICS
The Killing
The Lady Eve
The Long, Hot Summer
Rififi

Thursdays: GAMBLES
Diggstown
Revolver
Rotten Dirty Scoundrels
White Men Can't Jump

I do have back-ups if some of these turn out to be unavailable, like Purple Noon, Boiler Room and The Hoax. Maybe you have other suggestions, and maybe I haven't seen them yet.

Catch the action on Twitter and on each subsequent Sunday.

Which isn't to say I've abandoned my Doctor Who Movie Titles project, that's going on too. And oHOTmu or NOT's DJ Nath marathons holiday-themed films every December, so I'm likely to catch a few of those as well.