#moviejunk

[childgolden]

Madeline Zima | The Nanny, Californication, Twin Peaks, DC's Doom Patrol...

[magisterjieko]

We will be watching Godzilla and X-Men: Days Of Future Past at Robinson's Magnolia. #godzilla #xmen #xmendaysoffuturepast #jenniferlawrence #hughjackman #moviedate #moviejunk #movietickets #robinsonsmagnolia #tflers #tagsforlike #movieworld #picoftheday #photooftheday #pinoyigers #tweegram #happygram #instalove #instalike #20likes #inlove #instadate (at Robinsons Magnolia)

[josephspink1991-blog]

Less Than Zero.

Directed By: Marek Kanievska

Starring: Andrew McCarthy

            Jamie Gertz

            Robert Downey Jnr.

            James Spader

Released: 1987

In a nut shell, Less Than Zero is a shadow of the source material. The Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name shares very little in the way of plot, something both the novel and the book have a severe lack of, but what it does have in common is the tone. 

In short the film is about the ups and downs of a friendship post graduation and how each of them deals with life after high school. It's very much a poster film for the university generation seeing as the only character who seems to not be in the clammy grip of severe drug addiction is our lead character, Clay. He comes home for Christmas to see the tattered ruins of his once strong friendship and a series of event push him to find something to do about it. The film mimics the, excuse the Will.I.Am reference, "go hard or go home" attitude of the 80s party lifestyle. There are a lot of drugs, a lot of poorly constructed sex scenes and the much appreciated use of a soundtrack that boasts the likes of Public Enemy, LL Cool J and Poison. This is what the film does extremely well, the constant bombardment of this lifestyle upon our characters does seem real, and you see a gradual decline in the energy and enjoyment that these situations are approached in.

Let's talk performances. First off we have Andrew McCarthy who I'm going to group with his co star Jamie Gertz in the category of "fine". There's is absolutely nothing wrong with their performances. It's believable that they love each other and apart from some unfortunately embarrassing sex scenes they're convincing in their roles. But that's as far as they seem to be able to go.  A combination of not amazing script writing and a lack of likeability on both parts mean that if in 5 years time someone asks me what I thought of this film, I won't rush to find their names. With that out of the way we can discuss the performance that is the centrepiece of this film, the role that carries it. Robert Downey Jnr. as the heroin addicted, self involved Julian. I'll start by saying it's near impossible to like this guy. We see far too much of the self destructive side of him and his reconciliation is not given nearly enough time. Putting this to one side the performance given is outstanding. Downey Jnr. has been quoting as saying "I actually researched the role of Julian for ten years following the completion of the movie..." and it comes as no great surprise. He plays the dizzying highs and soul destroying lows of heroin addiction with a sense of honesty. It puts the audience in a morally strange place. There's no doubt this character is suffering, but due to the way it is presented you want to see more. You want a sweaty Robert Downey to be screaming at drug dealers and partying hard, because it makes such fascinating viewing. Speaking of drug dealers, James Spader gives another performance that saves this picture. His greasy haired, camp and somewhat loveable performance as Rip really is a surprise favourite of mine. 

What this film lacks is a sense of humanity. Due to time constraints you never get to feel you know the characters. Their friendship being torn apart you are allowed to watch the slow rebuild process but without a foundation of care for these people it's hard to want them to make things up. The real power of this film comes from it's closing 30 minutes. When the stakes are highest this film gets interesting and for the first time looses it's veil of superficiality. It stops being about establishing shots of Beverly Hills palm trees and panning around party scenes, and it becomes about people. This is where the films themes get the most interesting, this is when we see the closest similarity the the namesake novel. 

If you're willing to watch the first hour of mediocrity to get to the intensely brilliant final third, then this film is for you. It's not to say you wont enjoy the the film up until then, but as soon as Downey Jnr. loses his cool and threats are made, this film finds its feet and runs for the hills.

6/10