Modern classic -- and perhaps best film of 1997

Rating: Null/10 (21 June 2013)

After watching Hollywood virtually incapable of producing a convincing period piece during the stultifyingly self-conscious '80s, what a relief to see that the 1990s didn't have the same problem.
LA CONFIDENTIAL is a splashy, game cinematic display of slime, corruption and intrigue set to the backdrop of 1950s showbiz-obsessed Los Angeles and its infamously dirty police department. With Jerry Goldsmith's CHINATOWNesque score adding immeasurably to the thing.
Oh, I suppose it's not perfect. But darn near close to it.
Don't be turned off by (as a result of expecting too much from) Kim Basinger's Oscar'd performance: she's okay and certainly acceptable given the role, but her award-winning stature was largely over-hyped because, as 1997 was the year of horrid TITANIC (which was guaranteed an Oscar sweep due to block voting from two studios) the much-superior LA CONFIDENTIAL was thrown a conciliatory bone which landed in Kim's lap... Again, she's just fine, but don't sit down to watch this thinking she's going to be the main attraction; she's really a lesser light in the picture.
Anyway, it's interesting how rarely Tinseltown has ever managed to do a really captivatingly gossipy, warts-and-all (if fictionalized) expose on itself. But LA CONFIDENTIAL has succeeded in doing exactly that.
I have essentially no complaints.
Except, perhaps, for the Lana Turner scene: Turner was far too famous not to hire a model who more closely resembled her; as a result of not doing so, the moment is nowhere near as funny as it could've been.