L.A. Confidential (1997)

This intensive, multi-layered period thriller is a riveting and unforgettable tale, perhaps one of the 1990s' outstanding films. Brilliantly directed by Curtis Hanson, it brought superb performances from Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe (pictured, centre left), Guy Pearce (pictured, centre right), gave Kim Basinger an Oscar for her support role and picked up a further Oscar for its script, based on the novel by James Ellroy.

Post-war Los Angeles is a sewer overflowing with ambition, corruption and a turf war between lawmakers and lawbreakers, overseen by sleaze-magazine editor Sid Hudgens (a joyful performance from Danny DeVito). When two cops take a Christmas Eve beating, the squad go tit-for-tat with the suspects. Shocked by the scenes, officer Ed Exley (Pearce) reports his colleagues, "Hollywood" Jack Vincennes (Spacey) and Bud White (Crowe), who are disciplined.

Exley is promoted by Captain Smith (James Cromwell), and put on the trail of those responsible for a cop-killing coffee-shop carnage spree, Vincennes goes after a gang of lookalike hookers (led by a Veronica Lake double, Basinger), while career jawbreaker White takes on organised crime. Slowly, the men realise there is a link between all their cases and are brought together to discover that betrayal and death are not far behind unless they bury their differences and act as a team...