Movies

L.A. Confidential (Warner Bros.). Raves for the adaptation of James Ellroy's acclaimed policier about the investigation of a mass murder in the 1950s. "[T]he best film of its type since Chinatown," says Todd McCarthy in Variety. Critics praise the all-star cast (which includes Kevin Spacey and Kim Basinger); the unpredictable plot twists; and the use of Los Angeles, made to evoke the city of classic film noir, as a backdrop. The big surprise is the discovery of talent in director Curtis Hanson, who was roundly drubbed for a previous film, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. "Nothing in Hanson's previous work ... suggested that he would come up with a film like L.A. Confidential" (Anthony Lane, TheNew Yorker). (Click here for stills and clips.)

In & Out (Paramount). A sitcom-ish comedy about an Indiana high school teacher (Kevin Kline), the mystery of whose sexual orientation becomes the object of a media hunt. Critics say writer Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey) strains to make the humor accessible to Middle America: "Nearly every gag is pitched and underlined in the most obvious way," says Variety's McCarthy. Some say Kline's screwball performance rescues the film: "Kline triumphs over an incoherent idea" (David Denby, New York). (In & Out is plugged here.)

Television

Nothing Sacred (ABC; Thursdays, 8 p.m. EDT/PDT). Critics coo about this new show featuring an inner-city priest who sends a parishioner to an abortion clinic and considers breaking his own celibacy vows. The subject of religious ambivalence is called daring, the treatment of it smart and sophisticated. "I can't imagine how [it] ever got on the prime-time schedule," says New York's John Leonard. Slate's Walter Kirn, however, dissents, condemning Nothing Sacred as self-righteous "phony Hollywood iconoclasm." (ABC promotes the show.)

Brooklyn South (CBS; Mondays, 10 p.m. EDT/PDT). What's most original about NYPD Blue producer Steven Bochco's newest cop show, critics say, is the level of gore. Nine minutes into the first episode, a sniper blows a chunk of brains out of a detective's head. While this latest ensemble show about an urban police precinct echoes Bochco's other work (mainly Hill Street Blues), it is called "self assured and polished" (Tom Shales, the Washington Post). And critics praise its social conscience, taking especial note of its unsparing depictions of police brutality. (CBS plugsBrooklyn South.)

Michael Hayes (CBS; Tuesdays, 9 p.m. EDT/PDT). One of four new law-and-crime dramas set in New York, this one--starring NYPD Blue's David Caruso--wins praise as "a smartly conceived genre piece" (Caryn James, the New York Times). Writer-producer Nicholas Pileggi (GoodFellas) gets credit for the show's verisimilitude. Caruso, as a dour, crusading prosecutor, is called, alternatively, "credible" and "likable" (Shales, the Washington Post), and humorless and "as virtuous as John Calvin" (Leonard, New York). (See CBS's preview.)

Music

Candle in the Wind 1997, by Elton John (Rocket/A&M). Overplay of Elton John's funeral tribute to the late Princess Diana provokes a backlash. Newsweek's Karen Schoemer says it's clear that John "hastily reworked" his 1973 love letter to Marilyn Monroe. The new lyrics (by Bernie Taupin), she says, are "as facile and pretty as a souvenir thimble"; the apparently hot new genre of pop elegy, she adds, is tacky. But John also wins praise for refusing to profit from Di's death. "Even if the song continues to be inescapable, Mr. John refuses to compound the hype," says the New York Times' Jon Pareles.

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