Less Than Zero Remains A Powerful Film The hour is 4 am. and I'm caught watching Less Than Zero, unable to turn away to sleep, unable to dismiss this creature of the 80's, the Brat Pack actors, the groovy but over- enthusiastic sound of The Bangles...unable to resist watching this film. I had forgotten the profoundness to be found, at times, in the eyes of Andrew McCarthy- in fact, I had forgotten Andrew McCarthy. His character of Clay is the most complex in this story and therefore the most challenging to portray and his quiet and doubtful performance works perfectly to communicate a young man who has trouble expressing his feelings or even realizing his desires and yet is trapped in a time in life where new and strange feelings and situations come without warning or control. Clay has gone away to school in the East Coast and struggles to maintain a long distance relationship with his girlfriend, Blair. He returns to LA six months later to find everything and everyone predictably the same, with one exception. Cocaine has become a major addition to the spoiled lifestyle of his wealthy ilk. His best friend, Julian played with, at moments, gut wrenching pain, by Robert Downey Jr., has become totally addicted to smoking cocaine and has lost all his money and is in debt and cutoff from his parents and...etc. Since Downey has been in all the magazines and tabloid TV lately, concerning his arrests and continuous drug taking, watching his performance here was in some ways devilish fun yet too prophetic indeed.
I was touched by the basis of McCarthy's numb performance being that in Clay's separation from his best friends and in turn their separation from him- that change in niche, seemed the root of all decadence. Those childhood years of both safety and recklessness pass away very fast and time forces all to grow up for the mere necessity of living, yet Clay has the angst of a young man who feels like he doesn't belong anywhere and latches on to those people who represent something familiar even if his feelings toward those people have, in time and absence, turned apathetic.
Again, I was hooked by the film and surprised at how slick and ultimately powerful it was. I've read mostly bad reviews of the film, yet I tell you it is a well-acted, well-directed film focusing on characters and their unique predicaments and not simply a drug movie like countless others.