L.A. Confidential (1997)

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L.A. Confidential is a 1997 neo-noir film based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel of the same title, the third book in his L.A. Quartet. Both the book and the film tell the story of a group of LAPD officers in the year 1953, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity. The film adaptation was produced and directed by Curtis Hanson and co-written by Hanson and Brian Helgeland.
At the time, actors Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe were relatively unknown in North America, and one of the film's backers, Peter Dennett, was worried about the lack of established stars in the lead roles. However, he supported Hanson's casting decisions and this gave the director the confidence to approach Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, and Danny DeVito.


The ensemble of perfectly-cast actors fueled the film’s sense of newness and vitality. Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe were still three years away from making, respectively, their breakthrough films American Beauty and Gladiator.Each actor invests their role with an individual melancholy that distinguishes them from the city and the lurid events surrounding them. Though Crowe has morphed in the intervening decade into something of a caricature of smug masculinity, as White he’s pure bridled fury bottling up childlike confusion. Spacey puts Vincennes through an arc of regret tempered by hesitation, while Pearce’s Exley undergoes a violent coming of age driven by nascent integrity.
This film holds a 99% rating at Rotten Tomatoes with average rating of 8.6 out of 10. The IMDB rating for this movie is 8.4 voted by 216,066 users.

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