Though the promotional campaign may tell you Ridley Scott's latest is an instant fix for crime aficionados and mobster clichés, what Scott and his team of talent has produced is, expectedly, much more interesting.

Following in turns the exploits of one of America's more influential crime bosses, Frank Lucas as played by Denzel Washington, and his eventual nemesis detective Ritchie Roberts, played by Russell Crowe, the film is as much a kaleidoscope of human emotion as it is an exercise in flares and Curtis Mayfield. It's the director's understatement in portraying the roaring 70's, thanks both to a level of restraint when it comes to violence and a level of intelligence when it comes to character, that set American Gangster apart from the pack of caricature and place it firmly in the pantheon of great crime films. In this way American Gangster has more in common with the gritty, great genre films of the setting (-see The French Connection, Serpico) and less in common with the portion of the audience interested more in visual excess and motif than drama and meaning.

It never hurts a film to have a great ensemble and American Gangster's, headed by the stand-outs of Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor and, surprisingly, Cuba Gooding Jr., is no exception to the rule that great leads should have great support. It's Denzel Washington's film, however, and the Academy Award winner brings all the integrity and presence to his role audiences have come to expect. Russell Crowe is far from off-point in his role as Roberts, displaying the effortless marriage of intensity and vulnerability that has become his stock for nigh on ten years in the Hollywood system.

The script isn't completely devoid of cliché – the wildcard groupie, the partner-turned-junkie – and the original score may at times creep into Nino Rota's territory, but American Gangster, in perhaps Scott's best ever character piece, manages to transcend any minor flaws and make it into the number one spot for films you should see this year.

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