Less Than Zero (1987) 20th Century Fox/Drama RT: 98 minutes Rated R (graphic drug use/scenes of withdrawal, strong sexual content, brief nudity, language, some violence, thematic elements) Director: Marek Kanievska Screenplay: Harley Peyton Music: Thomas Newman Cinematography: Edward Lachman Release date: November 6, 1987 (US) Cast: Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz, Robert Downey Jr., James Spader, Tony Bill, Michael Bowen, Nicholas Pryor, Donna Mitchell, Sarah Buxton, Lisanne Falk, Jayne Modean, Michael Greene. Box Office: $12.4M (US)
Rating: ***
Nothing says Christmas like drug addiction, male prostitution and complete decadence, right? Less Than Zero, a very loose adaptation of the 1985 best seller by Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho), is one of the most depressing Christmas-set movies I’ve ever seen. It could easily be called Lifestyles of the Rich and Brainless. It’s set in Beverly Hills among the older teen set, a bunch of shallow, overprivileged youngsters of college age who don’t actually go to college. Only one of them appears to have chosen that path in life, a choice he’s made to regret in light of what happens to his close friends while he’s away.
Clay Easton (McCarthy, Mannequin) receives a phone call from his high school girlfriend Blair (Gertz, The Lost Boys) asking him if he’s coming home from Christmas. She’s worried about their friend Julian (Downey, Back to School) who became a crack addict after his record company failed to take off. They’re not exactly his favorite people at the moment; he caught them in bed together when he came home for Thanksgiving.
Julian is in a very bad way. He’s broke and homeless. His father (Pryor, Risky Business) kicked him out because of his drug habit. He owes his dealer Rip (Spader, Pretty in Pink) at lot of money, $50,000 to be exact. He doesn’t have the money and nobody will give it to him. He’s ultimately forced into prostitution by Rip and his henchman Bill (Bowen, Valley Girl). Blair, an aspiring model, has a small problem with cocaine herself. Clay, who feels like he no longer knows his best friends, is at a loss. He and Blair rekindle their relationship while they try to help Julian get clean and out of debt.
As you can see, the plot of Less Than Zero is as shallow as its characters. It’s little more than an R-rated afterschool special. The makers, director Marek Kanievska (Another Country) and writer Harley Peyton (Twin Peaks), deviate from Ellis’ novel in a major way. I recently learned this myself. Based on the plot summary on Wikipedia, it appears to focus more on the empty lifestyles of the main characters, Clay in particular. Julian isn’t even a major character. The movie focuses more on its strong anti-drug message, something that wasn’t even addressed in the book. It’s my understanding Ellis refused to watch the film because of the major departure from his book. However, a more faithful adaptation would have likely turned audiences off. The material is really bleak. It includes subplots about Clay’s bisexuality and a snuff film that some of the characters watch with great interest. But I’m not writing a review of the book, I’m here to talk about the movie and here’s what I think.
Less Than Zero is an interesting film. It’s definitely a product of its time, the decadent 80s. A 40-year removal from that crazy decade makes watching it a bizarre experience. I didn’t grow up in Beverly Hills and I don’t come from a rich family, but Ellis apparently knows about this culture. His books are typically set among the leisure class which brings me back to what I said about the characters being shallow and superficial. These kids have too much money and no appreciation for what it takes to earn money. They live in ostentatious homes and drive expensive cars. They’re all impossibly attractive. They appear to have nothing better to do than go clubbing every night and attend fancy parties thrown by their old high school classmates. They’re both boring and bored. Why should we care about them? It seems like Kanievska is attempting to humanize some of them with their concern for Julian’s plight. He mostly succeeds although it’s a little hard to feel sympathy for rich kids with real world problems.
The acting in Less Than Zero is all quite good starting with Downey. He turns in an affecting performance as a young man who sinks about as low as a person can. It’s heartbreaking to watch him sink into utter human degradation. The look of shame and embarrassment after he services his first john makes it feel real. It’s even more haunting when you consider how it prefigures Downey’s own drug issues in the 90s.
McCarthy delivers a comparatively weak performance as the protagonist of the story. The filmmakers don’t bother to give his character any depth at all. He’s just a random decent guy who finds he doesn’t really fit in with his old crowd anymore. Gertz is pretty one-dimensional too. All we really know about her is that she cares about both guys. Spader, on the other hand, is positively reptilian as Rip, the worst kind of parasite, one that profits from the suffering of others.
The soundtrack is really good. The best cuts are The Bangles’ cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Hazy Shade of Winter”, Poison’s cover of the KISS anthem “Rock and Roll All Nite” Slayer’s abridged version of Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and Roy Orbison’s “Life Fades Away” heard over the closing credits.
That brings me to another interesting thing about Less Than Zero. It opens with a happy occasion, a high school graduation. Somebody takes a photo of Clay, Blair and Julian, all of them smiling and looking forward to the next chapter in their lives. The movie ends with another look at the photo. It takes on a element of sadness leaving the viewer feeling thoroughly depressed. Okay, Less Than Zero is hardly a feel-good Christmas movie, but it is a powerful anti-drug drama and an interesting trip back in time to a decade we either remember clearly or hazily.
