Movie #81 - L.A. Confidential

"Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush..."

1998 was a funny year for movies. This was the year of the juggernaut Titanic taking over both the box office draw and all of the critical acclaim. Also, 1998 was a tough competition amongst films with Good Will Hunting, Full Monty, and As Good as it Gets participating for Best Picture.

L.A. Confidential in my opinion is one of the better films coming out of that strong group in 1998. The Academy got it wrong with some of the winners related to this film. L.A. Confidential, like the others of 1998 got a number of Oscar nominations, winning for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. I completely agree with the Screenplay nod as this movie is deep, with strong character development, a great murder mystery to drive you throughout the film, and is filled with deceit and mistrust - which makes for a great movie.

However, the reason this movie still creates a stir in me after 10 years is the fact that Kim Basinger won for Best Supporting Actress for a film that she starred in for probably 15-20% of the time. I guess, by definition, 15-20% of the film constitutes the nomination, but her performance doesn't. She's horrible in this movie and it goes in line with many of her other films. Not to mention, she lowers the achievements made by the rest of the cast, from Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, and Kevin Spacey down to even the brief appearances by Danny DeVito and David Strathairn. Basinger does not add value to her role and to the overall cast - and apart from the tension created by her character between Pierce and Crowe, you could remove her role completely and still have a wonderful film in the end.

So I guess, in retrospect, a Best Supporting Actress winner should be a character who drove the plot of the film and added value... from my rant in the last paragraph, you know where I stand there. In defence of her win, there wasn't much choice from the other nominees... except maybe Julianne Moore from her role in Boogie Nights. Outside of that, I didn't see the Academy selecting Joan Cusack (In & Out), Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting), or Gloria Stuart (Titanic) as none of these three performances should have even been considered in the end.

By the way, I still highly recommend this film, and for those who have yet to see it - you'll be thrilled when you find out who Rollo Tomasi is?