LA Confidential
As Reviewed by James Brundage
There are three ways to describe a film like this one. You could talk about it's technical brilliance, the film noir nature of it. You could wax philisophical about the nature of movies, and why this one saves from just another sad sorry night wasted (my personal favorite). Or you could just say it's a damn good movie and leave it as that.
Of course if I talked like that, I would cross the line from a movie critic, who we all know and love, to a movie buff, who just sits there and acts stupid in the theater with absolutely no life. And, you know what, I really don't want that. So here I am, reviewing this movie that is summed up best in saying its just so damn good, and I have to say more or I feel like a bad critic.
How to waste time describing this movie?
The Summary Approach: Three 50s LA cops (Russell Crowe, Guy Pierce, Kevin Spacey) are caught in a film noir I’m told is something like Chinatown. They're all at odds, all doing both the right thing and the wrong thing, all caught in the giant grey area called the middle. They are also all, in some way, involved with an attempt to take over the Mickey Cohen drug rackets and a massacre of six people in The Night Owl Café.
The Surfer Dude at the Theatre Approach: Watching LA Confidatial is, like, a bitchin experience which, like, a makes you like totally dig the movie like a big one on the coast. It's, like, better than listening to Alternative Surf music while, like, surfing.
The Way-Too Analytical Prick Approach: Seeing this film noir, I am reminded of just why in the hell I like them so much. The lighting sheltering the femme fatale (Kim Basigner, who won Best Supporting Actress for her efforts) and just about everyone else is so utterrly symbolic of the conflicts inside of them, which vetern noir director Curtis Hanson (you, un-technical people (*snobbish snort*) would know him as the director of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle) handles with his adept eye for thrills and for a literary aspect.
The Guy at the Theatre with the Girlfriend Approach: This one was, you know, very cool. At least what I saw of it, you know, with the romance flying between that Officer Bud White and Lynn Bracken, we got some of our own fun mixed into the movie…
See, there's something for everyone.
Movie Reviews by James Brundage