I'll admit I haven't been in contact with any of Brett Easton Ellis' artistic output beyond AMERICAN PSYCHO. I have read the novel and watched the movie, but that's about it. Part of this disinterest stems from his annoying online persona *. The guy is talented, but he seems to believe it's still cool and visionary to deliberately be an asshole in the internet age. LESS THAN ZERO intrigued me because Ellis despised it for so many years. He only made peace with it recently. Knowing the film's cult status, I found that dissonance in artistic visions captivating and decided to give it a shot. There is a lot to like about LESS THAN ZERO. There is the obvious strong writing, the patient, detail-oriented approach of directed Marek Kanievska and a wonderful organic charm.
LESS THAN ZERO is about three friends graduating from high school. They venture into adult life, innocent, oblivious to its power to cripple dreams. They are very different from one another. Clay (Andrew McCarthy) is disciplined, self-conscious, but has a stern personality. Blair (Jami Gertz) is fragile and melancholic and Julian (Robert Downey Jr.) is a dreamer. He always has plans, visions of what he should be, but no real desire to work his desires into a reality. Six months after graduation, Clay, Blair and Julian have drifted away from each other and lost themselves into adult life. Julian seems to have drifted quite a bit further away from the others and has gotten into serious drug debt to a local thug (James Spader).
First of all, the actuality of LESS THAN ZERO is quite frightening. I could easily forget this movie was shot in 1987 if I didn't have era memorabilia on screen (my favorite one was an awesome AT&T answering machine. Anybody remembers freakin' answering machines?) The discourse is still so pertinent. Nothing can prepare you for adult life and especially not school, not your parents, not your upbringing. You will find yourself alone and adrift. While LESS THAN ZERO's vision is quite stark, maybe even limited, it hits a bull's eye on several things. The type of personalities that emerge from a high school environment, the limited paths we can choose from, that oppressive feeling of loneliness that settles in after a few months of chaotic partying. Call it an unbecoming-of-age movie.
You always know when you're in Brett Easton Ellis' universe. He gleefully lets you know.
My favorite aspect of LESS THAN ZERO was the relationship between Julian and Rip, James Spader's character. The trio of protagonist has been around Rip since their most tender age. They don't see him as threatening at first, but he evolved from a schoolyard dealer to a dangerous individual. Julian's gradual awakening to how much trouble he was in was both fascinating and heartbreaking. It illustrated best the deceitful character of adult life, the change that's going on under the hood while on the surface, you still look the same. Young, baby-faced Robert Downey Jr. pulls off despair with absolute command. His performance is subtle, layered and yet will leave a powerful impression on you. Honorable mention to Jami Gertz, who has an organic innocence to her game. It seems rigid at times, but she is the most adolescent of the cast. Her raw acting fits both the movie and the character.
Philosophically, I don't fully agree with LESS THAN ZERO. It pictures human beings as cogs in the machine, with very little to do with their own fate. It's a little deliberate for my own taste, but there are people like that who just let life take them to the darkest places. I can't argue with the execution though. LESS THAN ZERO survived the test of time and even gained a quirky, dated charm. Much of that is due to Brett Easton Ellis' writing and the rather tender interpretation director Marek Kanievska makes of them. I didn't read the novel (not yet, it's not something I plan to do), but there is an obvious tenderness Kanievska put between the words, into images, soundtrack choices and performance quirks. Maybe that's what Ellis hated so much, I don't know. Ellis has never been on the sentimental side. But that's a good part of why I enjoyed LESS THAN ZERO and plan to watch it again in the future.
4 STARS
* Online personae are annoying in general, but you know what I mean.
