LA Confidential: Very hush-hush

 

★★★★—One of my favorite films from the 1990s. Saw it in the theater my freshman year of high school with a girl I was trying to get with. She was not impressed. I wouldn’t shut up about it. I knew we wouldn’t work out. 

 

Still not as good as the book as a lot of the plot gets boiled down and some things don’t make a lot of sense as a result. The whole Exley sleeping with Lynn thing is confusing, there is no mention of any child killings at all (though that is like half the book), and heroine is more or less just MacGuffin in the movie. James Ellroy has a legit beef for what the film did to his novel, but I don’t think what he wanted would have been possible for a normal length feature film. Also, calling it a “turkey of the highest order” is a lot of hyperbole. 

Ger

The Johnny Stompanato stuff is extremely lame. It feels like we are going and meeting him in a video game. “Choose your own adventure. A. Good cop. B. Bad cop. C. Lean on him.” Everyone chooses option C. Lot of tooling on world famous thug Johnny Stompanato. Bud calls him a “wop cocksucker,” which he uncharacteristically lets slide. Exley calls his girlfriend, Lana Turner, the movie star, a whore. This also doesn’t get him killed, though Turner throws a drink in his face. 

Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, and Guy Pearce are all excellent and memorable. At the time, I was most impressed with Crowe, but now I’d unfortunately call Spacey the best of the bunch, but he’s an asshole. Supporting cast is great, too, especially James Cromwell, one of my favorite vegans. David Strathairn, Ron Rifkin, Graham Beckel (who always plays a cop), all good. Danny DeVito, Kim Basinger, they are okay. Basinger is hella fine though. 

Has an authentic 1950s vibe I am a total sucker for. This led to many noir flicks for me in the late 90s. It holds its own with the best of them, weaving together crime, corruption, and Hollywood glamour. 

Though I don’t think it is a truly great film—too confusing, not focused enough—it is one of my favorites, and one I’ve watched many, many times. Hell, the DVD was the first thing I ever bought on Amazon, this also being my first DVD… 

 

Something funny, once I fell asleep watching it. The home screen is DeVito saying “Off the record. On the QT. And very Hush-Hush.” I had a friend staying with me and he couldn’t figure out how to turn off the DVD player. He now hates this movie.