Less Than Zero

Less Than Zero is NOT a family film, and is NOT for the faint of heart. Its portrayal of addiction and the rabbit hole you can fall down, isn’t that far off from reality. The idea is in the title itself, “Less Than Zero,” what does it mean to hit rock bottom ? To feel less than nothing?

Although the movie was filmed and takes place in 1987, I believe it still holds relevance to this day with modern problems. It takes place in a party-obsessed, 1980’s, Beverly Hills. It follows a group of three friends who recently graduated highschool. The main character Clay(Andrew McCarthy) goes off to college on the east coast, Blair (Jami Gertz) decides to stay and model in Beverly Hills, and Julian (Robert Downey Jr.) has many failed attempts at opening record labels and nightclubs.

Clay comes home after a semester away, to the both of them being addicted to cocaine, but no one seemed as bad as Julian. Julian is $50k in debt, exiled from family, and continuously failing at getting clean. Robert Downey Jrs.’ performance as Julian was so real, it was so hard to watch him portray his addiction at times. Although Julian was in over his head, we can still see his innocence, he is scared to ask for help. Julian ends up doing some dark and twisted things because he literally does not know what else to do.

The movie opens up with showing you fun lively parties, but as it continues the viewer realizes the parties aren’t that fun, the people there aren’t the best, and the whole party/drug scene can actually be really dark and messed up.

The cinematography with its use of bright neon colors and the soundtrack (which was PRAISED at one point) are so 1980’s, but if you don’t mind these features I would certainly recommend.

With great acting on such a tough subject, this movie took me on an emotional roller coaster and I could not take my eyes away from the screen.