witty and snappy neo-noir

Rating: 8/10 (10 July 2019)

L.A Confidential has three main characters portrayed by, Guy Pierce, Russel Crowe and Kevin Spacey. An incredibly well-renounced cast, but during that time both Pierce and Crowe were relatively unknown.
I found the movie to be smart and fun to watch. It respects it's audience. Having multiple main characters served the plot well, as the theme of corruption and good/bad could develop as the lines blur such as a noir would. Moreover, the plot felt tangled and loose, with seemingly unrelated plot events unfolding throughout the movie. This all comes together to give a sense of realism and novelty unseen in most crime movies.
The characters are played wonderfully and are wonderful character studies themselves. Skillfully, they all serve as foils to one another. Contrasting each of their dominant traits. This allows the movie to explore their development with less time, which helps considering the multiple focuses the movie has to take.
The standard twist is perhaps a little undeveloped. But it still comes as a surprise as little information is given in a short amount of time before the reveal two-thirds of the way through.
A strong point of the movie is without a doubt how detailed everything is. It's a meticulously built world, with believable characters, and a tight recreation of an era. Crime, morality, characters, and beliefs intertwine magically in this movie.