LESS THAN ZERO - REVIEW
Robert Downey Jr. stars in Less Than Zero , a 1987 film based on Bret Easton Ellis' novel. It also stars Jami Gertz, Andrew McCarthy and James Spader. The film follows three friends as their lives evolve (or devolve) after college: Clay (McCarthy) and Blair's (Gertz) relationship ends when the latter has an affair with Julian (Downey Jr.) and, some time later, a now successful Clay returns to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his family and reconnect with old friends, including old flame Blair. Unfortunately, Julian's drug problem quickly becomes a liability for everyone. Robert Downey Jr. gives a reliably strong performance as the ebullient yet wounded Julian and James Spader is, of course, entirely convincing as the main antagonist. The film itself works best when it focuses on the sleazier side of L.A. and how the pressures of fitting in and making it big in the city can turn people into mindless cocaine-fuelled zombies, probably on a downward spiral to self-destr