Less Than Zero

This is another post that fits both the Nostalgia &  Finally Checking blogs.   This movie “Less than Zero”, although I’ve seen bits here and there over time, I have never actually watched in it’s entirety.  I did however listen the hell out of the soundtrack though,  well not the entire soundtrack but a few choice selections and since it was on I decided to tough it out. 

Things kick off at a High School Graduation and reminded me just how many movies from the 80’s incorporated them into their plotlines, too many to count.  After a bit of backstory of one guy off to college and his girl and best bud staying behind to cheat on him and develop drug habits, which is told via flashback (which I’m told is lazy writing) as he’s returning home for the first time in maybe three years.  The movie immediately dives into what seems like 30 minutes of dance party sequence in various locations.  I think in those thirty minutes I heard a bit of pretty much every song on the soundtrack except maybe two or three and it wasn’t as good as I thought it had been.  The songs I liked, I still like but those other tracks that I used to skip over – Poison covering Kiss, Aerosmith covering something else and some soul R&B track were painful as was the constant bombardment of music, I was craving for a bit of silence and this made me appreciate the more recent trend of little to no music in movies.  From there the movie is basically about trying to save their friend Julian (Robert Downey Jr.) from his drug addiction.  The thing is the guy that came back doesn’t really care, he’s more about trying to get into his ex-girl’s pants and his ex-girl is more into doing lines than to help her current bf so she enlisted the help of her ex-bf to do that for her.  Before long the plot involves Julian’s dealer forcing him into male prostitution to pay back his debt.  Once Julian’s two friends realize they ought to help their friend,  it’s too late. He dies and the movie is over.  cue Mr. Orbinson.  Also dead.  Singing a song about life fading away la la la la.         

Now, Mr. Downey’s character is the only one that goes through any sort of devolpment in this movie but like most drug addicts, he has a weakness and keeps going back and then he dies before he could really do anything about it.  There’s a hint of the woman seeing a bit of her self in Julian and deciding to dump a vile of coke down the drain but mostly she’s unchanged.   The lead character apparently did his changing by going off to college before the movie got started.  There’s a lot of dialogue in this movie that’s very cliché and corny and it’s shot and edited like a student film, I don’t recall what the reception to this movie was when it came out but in my living room the reviews were bad.  The only saving grace was the soundtrack.  Slayer – In A Gadda Da Vida, Public Enemy – Bring the Noise, Bangles – Hazy Shade of Winter, Glenn Danzig & The Power and Fury Orchestra – You & Me (less than zero) & Roy Orbison – Life Fades Away.  Honourable Mention: LL Cool J – Goin Back To Cali.

I don’t think so.