Review of L.A. Confidential (1997) by Carlos R — 19 Nov 2016

More than just a murder mystery movie with a wonderful cast, this film shines in a way I haven't seen in quite some time. I watched it because of its similarities to a newer movie I had my eyes on "The Nice Guys", and while that film is good, this one takes the cake. The perfectly capture that old school Film Noir feel, without being beholden to the time period. If it wasn't for some of the set details and props, this could be a movie set in 1997. Its based on a series of novels and never got a sequel. It is almost unlike anything else I've seen recently, as far as successful cop movies go. No stories in the 2010's have as much mystery and suspense in them.

Of course there is corruption in the police force and one of our main characters is out to wade through all of that regardless of the consequences. The ensemble cast does a bang up job, with the new comers (at the time) Pierce and Crowe carrying this movie brilliantly and Kevin Spacey + Kim Basinger doing great work as well. Kim won an Oscar for her performance. The eventual three-way romance was a little forced but this movie had a ton of things to do in 2 hours. How could one forget Danny Devito? Playing a sleazy tabloid journalist, who still brings his brand of gravel voiced humor to this relatively serious role.

LA Confidential had over 80 speaking roles and balances them well, with characters leaving their mark and eventually coming back up as a point of reference, moving the story forward. There were also many different plot threads that do not get too convoluted as the story goes, which is a problem with many films today. The mystery keeps you hanging on and an hour in you are still curious to who the antagonist is. But when you find out, you are then stuck with wondering how they would ever take them down. The characters are flawed, real humans with motivations that many other cop movies have, but acted to perfection.