For a while, at least among my small teen circle of friends, Less Than Zero was the most talked about movie that no one had seen.
This was almost exclusively because the ‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’ music video was getting such extensive airplay, even after the movie evaporated from theaters. Those quick stylish cuts of blue-lit ultra-cool party ambiance made it seem like something really important was going on in between shots of The Bangles playing. And I very much wanted to hang with Jami and Andrew in that electric neon-noir world.
This movie feels like 1987.
Every decision, from the power-fashion to the lighting gels, is hyper-tuned to the visual grammar of the times.
What mattered to director Marek Kanievska is how bodies looked under cold light of stacked tv sets. The camera was deliberate and every shot looked like fashion photography. You’re meant to observe rather than relate to the goings on, and that’s part of the film’s appeal. It lets you hang right outside the frame, close enough to hear the ice clink in the glasses, but far enough that nobody hands you one.
It’s also one of the best-sounding films of the decade. The Rick Rubin-produced soundtrack pulls from across the dial (and Def Jam’s roster): The Bangles, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Aerosmith. It’s not random. It’s a cross-section of what MTV was circulating at peak saturation. 1987 was a year when genres overlapped, where rap, pop and metal operated in the same head space and tastes weren’t so easily siloed. The film’s soundtrack reflects that – it’s a deliberate marketing tool that knew what the kids were into.
If you were raised on this era, chances are your playlists still sound like this.
Robert Downey Jr. is the real MVP here. Where as the rest of the Brat Packers play closer to type, his performance carries a weight the rest of the film avoids. He embodies Julian as someone already past the point of negotiation. The film weaves its moral argument around him – he’s the caution sign at the edge of the cliff.
Turning Bret Easton Ellis’s flattened nihilistic detachment into more of a cautionary tale made it easier to market, but most of the adaptation choices were about story structure. Ellis’s novel is episodic, ambient and mostly uninterested in plot. The film trades that for a three-act shape of an R-rated ‘Just Say No’ PSA. But it’s understandable since ambiguity doesn’t test well. Tragedy, at least, offers closure.
Less Than Zero is the kind of party you don’t usually get invited to, but for this one shining moment in 1987, you got past the velvet ropes. And even though you’re a terminally underdressed wallflower, you can enjoy the music, take in the scene, bask in the glow, and watch the rich kids spiral from the safety of your couch.
Just avoid James Spader. -Pop
Less Than Zero arrived on Home Video today in 1988, after a November 6, 1987 theatrical release.
