5. L.A. Confidential (1997) (Dir. Curtis Hanson)
Even James Ellroy, novelist of L.A. Confidential, has admitted to the greatness of Curtis Hanson’s marvel of an adaptation. Tight, beautifully shot, twisty and perfectly encapsulating the time period of its setting, L.A. Confidential is jammed packed with great performances from Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey and a noir-inclined storyline that will baffle you brain until you can piece it all together. The script is dynamite, the shoot-out sequences are bloody and expertly shot, and the film never falls off its horse in its attempts to tell a complicated and somewhat windy story. Assured and gorgeous, Curtis Hanson has never made a better film.