Less Than Zero (1987)

Less Than Zero was maybe my FAVORITE movie for a long time when I was pretty young -- I was only eleven when it came out, and I am guessing I didn't see it right then, I was probably more like twelve or thirteen. Either way, it made a huge impact on me, sort of like seeing 'The Blue Lagoon' did when I was pretty small: these movies were sexy or attractive in a way I hadn't really seen before and shaped my perception of sex at the time for sure. The scene where Blair (Jami Gertz) & Clay (Andrew McCarthy) are fucking at his parents house in a red-lit hallway on Thanksgiving is pretty classic.
I loved the movie so much, and I was pretty obsessed with Robert Downey Jr., that I read the book by Bret Easton Ellis that the film was supposedly adapted from soon after. The book is nothing like the movie -- the book is far more straightforward in tone and nihilistic, whereas the movie is total late '80s rich kid melodrama. Both the book and the movie made an impression as my experience with the sort of lifestyle illustrated by them was almost zilch.

I got a hankering to watch the film again a few weeks ago, and it's not really a great film or anything, but it is sooooooo good at depicting late eighties. Robert Downey Jr. is, as usual, fucking GREAT as Julian, their friend who has turned into a junky over the course of a semester and aspires to be a night club owner.
My two favorite scenes in the film: One in the beginning where RDJr smokes some crack off to the side of the room at this party and then breaks out dancing; and then the one where Blair is in the woman's restroom and she pulls out a vile of coke and is about to do some, thinks better of it, and then pours it down the drain and these two girls next to her look at her with disgust and say, "Ugh, what a waste!!"

Did I mention that this movie looks soooooooooo good ?
Oh! and also that JAMES SPADER plays Julian's asshole drug dealer? YES!!!!!!!!