YMMV / L.A. Confidential

• Angst? What Angst?: Exley shows almost no reaction to the suicide of his father and longtime live-in lover, Inez Soto that were directly the results of his actions. He's more concerned with the fact Lynn chose Budd over him in the end.
• Complete Monster (includes Perfidia prequel): Pierce Morehouse Patchett uses his public persona as an eccentric, successful businessman to mask his crimes, covering up a series of murders of children by the insane son of a media mogul. Patchett later allows for Japanese attacks during World War II, including Pearl Harbor, and even engineers more, so the festering prejudice will allow him to purchase Japanese-American owned properties cheap. With his Fleur-de-Lis prostitution ring, Patchett pimps to wealthy associates, even having young boys and girls pose in sexual photos for his depraved clients. Patchett also uses his background in chemistry to modify heroin and create more potent batches to flood the streets and even modifies some doses to have his partner overcome police truth serum. Batches of his new concoctions are tested on one of his runners, and when the man fails to kill an investigating police officer, Patchett tortures him by injecting him with a series of bad strains.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Bud White befriends a young prostitute who is murdered soon afterward. Quite a tragic and moving event, except that her name is Kathy Janeway. Needless to say, the character doesn't appear in the movie.
• Jerkass Woobie: Jack Viencennes is a master at screwing up his own life and destroying every good thing he has going, but ultimately you can't help but feel somewhat sorry for the guy simple because of the sheer volume of the crap that accumulates around him.
• Magnificent Bastard (includes White Jazz): Edmond Jennings "Ed" Exley is an opportunistic but well-intentioned young policeman and the only intellectual rival to the vile Dudley Smith in the LAPD. Coming up with a lie to paint himself as a war hero, Ed quickly rises as a cop thanks to his brilliance and wealthy father Preston's backing, exposing a racist beating of minority inmates by writing a version of events that depicts Ed as the most moral of his colleagues. Later promoted to Captain, Ed overcomes the manipulations of Dudley and his own disgruntled lover to uncover the truth behind the Nite Owl massacre, leveraging a successful reopening of it and being promoted to Chief of Detectives, even as Preston kills himself in shame at Ed threatening to expose his father's deceitful past. As Chief, Ed ruthlessly schemes to clean up the department by exposing the corrupt Narcotics officers to the investigating FBI agents, turning a crooked officer into his pawn in the plot. Ed also turns another young officer into a mole to use against Dudley, eventually taking his evil rival down, even with the death of his mole, and later moves into politics while continuing to devote himself to absolute justice.
• The Woobie: Matt Reynolds. Unless you think smoking a little pot should result in being set up for the "Movie Premiere Pot Bust," having your career and life destroyed, then being exploited by the very guys who did it to you, which then results in your murder.