One of the film's backers, Peter Dennett, was worried about the lack of established stars in the lead roles, but supported Hanson's casting decisions, and the director had the confidence also to recruit Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, and Danny DeVito.

[3][4] It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning two: Best Supporting Actress (Basinger) and Best Adapted Screenplay; Titanic won in every other category for which L.A.

Fame-seeking narcotics sergeant Jack Vincennes collaborates with tabloid journalist Sid Hudgens to perform high-profile celebrity arrests, and volatile officer Wendell White uses violence to interrogate and intimidate suspects, particularly women-abusers, because his father murdered his mother.

On Christmas Eve, White encounters high-class prostitutes Lynn Bracken and Susan Lefferts, and former officer Leland Meeks.

They work for Pierce Patchett, a millionaire businessman operating Fleur-de-Lis, a clandestine prostitution ring hosting women surgically altered to resemble film stars.

Hudgens and Vincennes orchestrate a homosexual tryst between struggling actor Matt Reynolds and district attorney Ellis Loew to create blackmail photos.

Vincennes learns that Meeks and Stensland formerly worked together under Smith, and dropped an investigation into Patchett and Hudgens blackmailing prominent businessmen with photos of their illicit trysts.

Exley and White interrogate Loew, discovering Smith and Patchett are taking over Cohen's empire and used the photos of him with Reynolds to coerce his cooperation.

"[8] Screenwriter Brian Helgeland was originally signed to Warner Bros. to write a Viking film with director Uli Edel and then worked on an unproduced modern-day King Arthur story.

The pictures consisted of orange groves, beaches, tract homes in the San Fernando Valley, and the opening of the Hollywood Freeway to symbolize the image of prosperity sold to the public.

[8] In the pitch, Hanson showed the darker side of Ellroy's novel by presenting the cover of scandal rag Confidential and the famous shot of Robert Mitchum coming out of jail after his marijuana bust.

Crowe and Pearce were also relative unknowns in North America, and Milchan was equally worried about the lack of film stars in the lead roles.

[8] But he supported Hanson's casting decisions and this gave the director the confidence to approach Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey.

Hanson felt that the character of Jack Vincennes was "a movie star among cops", and thought of Spacey, with his "movie-star charisma," casting him specifically against type.

"[14] To give his cast and crew points and counterpoints to capture Los Angeles in the 1950s, Hanson held a "mini-film festival", showing one film a week: The Bad and the Beautiful, because it epitomized the glamorous Hollywood look; In a Lonely Place, because it revealed the ugly underbelly of Hollywood glamor; Don Siegel's The Lineup and Private Hell 36, "for their lean and efficient style";[12] and Kiss Me Deadly, because it was "so rooted in the futuristic '50s: the atomic age.

[18] He told Spinotti and the film's production designer Jeannine Oppewall to pay great attention to period detail, but to then "put it all in the background".

The site's critical consensus reads: "Taut pacing, brilliantly dense writing and Oscar-worthy acting combine to produce a smart, popcorn-friendly thrill ride.

[30] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "Mr. Spacey is at his insinuating best, languid and debonair, in a much more offbeat performance than this film could have drawn from a more conventional star.

"[31] Desson Howe's review for The Washington Post praised the cast: "Pearce makes a wonderful prude who gets progressively tougher and more jaded.

Like Roman Polanski's depiction of Los Angeles in the '30s in Chinatown, the atmosphere and detailed production design are a rich gel where the strands of narrative form.

"[33] USA Today gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing, "It appears as if screenwriters Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson have pulled off a miracle in keeping multiple stories straight.

"[35] Richard Schickel, in his review for Time, wrote, "It's a movie of shadows and half lights, the best approximation of the old black-and-white noir look anyone has yet managed on color stock.

"[36] Writing in Time Out New York, Andrew Johnston observed: "Large chunks of Ellroy's brilliant (and often hilarious) dialogue are preserved, and the actors clearly relish the meaty lines.

Dante Spinotti's lush cinematography and Jeanne Oppewall's crisp, meticulous production design produce an eye-popping tableau of '50s glamour and sleaze.

Confidential has is its reliance on unsettling bursts of violence, both bloody shootings and intense physical beatings that give the picture a palpable air of menace.

"[39] In his review for The Independent, Ryan Gilbey wrote, "In fact, it's a very well made and intelligent picture, assembled with an attention to detail, both in plot and characterisation, that you might have feared was all but extinct in mainstream American cinema.

[87] In addition to the film, the latter release included two featurettes, an interactive map of Los Angeles, a music-only track, a theatrical trailer, and three TV spots.

In addition to the features from the original DVD, there are four new featurettes, the 1999 pilot of the proposed TV series starring Kiefer Sutherland, and film commentary by writer (novel) James Ellroy, writer (screenplay)/co-producer Brian Helgeland, actors Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito & David Strathairn, production designer Jeannine Oppewall, director of photography Dante Spinotti, costume designer Ruth Myers and American film critic Andrew Sarris.

Confidential had been in development before the death of Chadwick Boseman, who would have played a young cop working for L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley named James Muncie.

[91] The planned sequel failed to attract interest from studios, with Ellroy and Helgeland revealing that executives from Netflix fell asleep during their pitch.