TheRetroCritic

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

Taking another break from Hollywood filmmaking, director Michel Gondry follows Mood Indigo with Microbe Et Gasoil (Microbe & Gasoline), a coming-of-age story about two young boys building a makeshift car of sorts and travelling around France. Newcomers Ange Dargent and Théophile Baquet play the titular leads and the playful friendship their characters form is both real and touching. You're never quite sure where the film is going and, while it could have easily developed into a love story, it instead reveals itself to simply be a film about rebellion and growing-up. Gondry takes a step back this time and doesn't add in his own brand of surreal storytelling and practical effects. The only unusual part of the film being the house/car the teenagers drive throughout. Microbe Et Gasoil taps into a specific feeling most of us can probably relate to, that is the reluctance to be different, to grow-up and the dream of one day just setting off on an adventure with no plans of