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Avg. Critic Score: 90 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 Iffy for 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Voluptuously engrossing. Read full review

  • 100
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    One of the best crime dramas to come along in years. Read full review

  • 100
    New York Daily News | Jami Bernard

    A juicy noir stew of amorality that's the best thing since "Chinatown." Read full review

  • 100
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Seductive and beautiful, cynical and twisted, and one of the best films of the year. Read full review

  • 100
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    L.A. Confidential, with an exceptional ensemble cast directed by Curtis Hanson from James Ellroy's densely plotted novel, looks to be the definitive noir for this particular time and place. Read full review

  • 100
    The New York Times |

    A tough, gorgeous, vastly entertaining throwback to the Hollywood that did things right. As such, it enthusiastically breaks most rules of studio filmmaking today. Read full review

  • 100
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    An irresistible treat with enough narrative twists and memorable characters for a half-dozen films. Read full review

  • 90
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    There are so many things to enjoy here. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Mike Clark

    This sleek adaptation of James Ellroy's dauntingly complex novel has the black-and-white tabloid soul of an old "Confidential" magazine. Read full review

  • 80
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    Hanson delivers something ever rarer in film culture, not a new film noir but an old-fashioned total movie, somehow of a single piece. Read full review

View more reviews for L.A. Confidential on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Dense, tangled period cop drama for adults.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this isn't a thrill-ride cops-a-go-go actioner for kids. Laden with vicious homicide, numerous subplots and multiple characters, it depicts deep police-force corruption and entrenched brutality in law-enforcement. Even its "heroic" policemen are badly flawed, self-serving characters. One crusades chivalrously against assailants who batter women; yet he himself becomes one, out of sexual jealousy. Swear words flow thicker than the bloody wounds, and there is much talk of prostitution and sex.
  • Families can talk about the time period of the early 1950s, and the parallels between this script's scandal-sheet Hush-Hush with the real-life one called Confidential. Research crime/showbiz scandals of the time (the Web has the juicy details), about the Johnny Stompanato murder, and how Confidential magazine went too far. Are popular gossip Web sites such as TMZ.com just as bad today or not?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: With cops like these, who needs gangsters? Police use bullying, blackmail and frame-up tactics against suspects, showing particular hatred for minorities. One police character says planting evidence and using brutality is standard for how cop detectives operate. Though technically "good" guys, Exley and White have their ruthless dark sides and both sleep with the same glamour-girl prostitute, though they manage to set aside their hatred for each other in the end.
What to watch for
  • violence false4 Violence: Vicious beat-downs, gun-downs, men riddled bloodily with machine-gun and shotgun blasts. People with slashed wrists/throats/legs; bloody bodies pile up after a massacre. A rotted, rat-eaten corpse. The heroine is slapped around by a boyfriend.
  • sex false3 Sex: Revealing clothing and brief female nudity, in bed (including a tied-up rape victim) and in the morgue. References to masturbation and pornography. Hints of kinky sex. The heroine is a working prostitute.
  • language false4 Language: "F--k" and "s--t" uttered frequently, and a lot of derogatory terms for women.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Social drinking that results in a violent, drunken brawl. Talk and depiction of marijuana, heroin, and cocaine.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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