A masterfully smart and soulful film that bows low before genre even as it betrays it.

| Oct 20, 2021

One of the things the film conveys, in addition to institutionalized corruption, is the energy and excitement of a city that knows it's on the move. L.A. Confidential is juicy dynamite.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 20, 2021

Dante Spinotti's widescreen camerawork and Jeannine Oppewall`s production design brilliantly recreate the somewhat tawdry world of a glamorous city which is starting to lose its glamour.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 19, 2021

While perhaps too much hype has preceded the film's release, the buzz about the quality of the performances by local lads Crowe and Pearce is justified, with Pearce the film's standout.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 19, 2021

A sterling cast, a meaty script, high production values and a confident hand at the tiller. It all adds up to a piece of rock-solid entertainment with a body and a brain to match. Who could ask for anything more?

| Oct 19, 2021

Set in Los Angeles in the 1950s, LA. Confidential is a sprawling story rich with memorable characters and surprising revelations.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 19, 2021

[It's] assembled with an attention to detail, both in plot and characterisation, that you might have feared was all but extinct in mainstream American cinema. But its most intriguing moments are the loose ends that don't get tied up.

| Oct 19, 2021

Almost absurdly entertaining.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 19, 2021

Director Curtis Hanson has done good work before (The River Wild and the underappreciated The Bedroom Window), but now he wins new recognition as a major stylist.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 19, 2021

The ending is fudged, compromises are made. But, while it lasts, it's a heady ride in fast company through territory where justice and the law are barely on nodding acquaintance.

| Oct 19, 2021

James Ellroy is to many people the densest, toughest, and smartest crime writer of our time, and what may be his densest, toughest, and smartest novel is now a movie bearing the same distinction.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 19, 2021

Against great odds, the director's ambition has been matched by his achievement.

| Oct 19, 2021

For all the powerhouse acting, this is Hanson's show.

| Oct 19, 2021

"L.A. Confidential" is violent, sharp and sinister. And it is brilliant.

| Oct 19, 2021

You need to pay close attention to "L.A. Confidential" from start to finish, but it's a rare pleasure these days to be challenged by a Hollywood picture. And to be surprised.

| Oct 19, 2021

Hanson wants to give us a richer sense of character than the standard noirs, and, by the end, his cops have earned their chops.

| Oct 19, 2021

L.A. Confidential is a movie bull's-eye: noir with an attitude, a thriller packing punches. It gives up its evil secrets with a smile.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 4, 2014

There are so many things to enjoy here. Director Curtis Hanson... keeps a complex story coherent and absorbing -- if bloody at the end.

| Jun 4, 2014

At the center of the movie are three mismatched cops with separately fueled ambitions, ferociously played by Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce. Their combined charisma almost smashes through the screen.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 4, 2014

L.A. Confidential isn't quite up there with Chinatown, but it's the closest thing to come down the Santa Monica Freeway in the last 23 years.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 4, 2014