Six Degrees of Separation

Six Degrees of Separation (1993) is an American comedy-drama directed by Fred Schepisi that you can watch online on iFILM. Will Smith stars as Paul, a young con artist who shows up wounded at the Manhattan penthouse of Ouisa and Flan Kittredge — art dealers played by Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland. The film is adapted from John Guare's Tony Award-winning Broadway play.

Paul claims to be the son of Sidney Poitier and a friend of the couple's children from Harvard. He's charming, well-spoken, full of vivid stories. They take him in, feed him dinner, give him a bed. By morning, the story is already unraveling — and the more they pull at it, the clearer it becomes that they believed him because they wanted to. He told them exactly what would work.

Smith shot this before Bad Boys, when he was still primarily known as a TV actor — and his performance here is something different from anything else in his career: contained, precise, built on what he doesn't say. The film is quietly pointed about class, race and the stories privileged people use to understand themselves. Stream Six Degrees of Separation online on iFILM.