Discuss Less Than Zero
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uhg. i'm speechless.
posted by acfSTAFFMOD on April 11, 2017 at 6:52 PM
i mean it, i just don't feel like i can put my feelings about this movie in words. jeez. i just finished reading less than zero and i'm on halfway through imperial bedrooms and so i thought this would be a good moment to watch this and boy oh boy do i regret it! i though maybe the references to the movie adaptation on the beggining of imperial bedrooms were just meant to be funny, but for god's sake they are accurate! so, i'm going to list some of the major shockers, hope there's someone to discuss 'cause i feel really angry right now.
- why would they make julian act like this total sad clown? this is not how julian is portrayed in the novel. julian is definitively okay (yes he does drugs, yes he's in dept, yes he has sex for money), but he isn't this absolute hobo slash junkie that made me cringe during all his screen time (no disrespect for RDJr, he was amazing and i'm glad this worked as a kickstart for him).
- why is rip **such **a prick? i mean, obviously he **is **a prick, **everyone **in the novel is a prick, but c'mon! he wasn't a pimp and he didn't walk around with some gorilla named bill
- why is clay such a good guy?! he is basically neutral on moral grounds. on the novel, he watches a teenage girl get gang raped and though he doens't take part in it, he watches and lets go; and when did he get so supportive of julian? yes he tries to help him, he gets him the money, but that's as far as it goes
- why did they replace blair's father's _boy_friend for a _girl_friend?
- why did they turn this amazing, thrilling, horrifying, immersive, fast-paced novel into a lame teenage drama?
- why oh why did they replace the nihilism, the repulsive shallowness, the lack of morals, the despair, the emptiness, the emotional void with some phony morals?
- why were the making out scenes *so * exagerated? ultra-cringe worthy level (like that super gross close up on clay and blair kissing, ugh)
okay, now that i let out most of my anger, i recognize that there are some nice things about the movie, namely the adorable tacky 80's outfits and some of the performances - mainly RDjr, but also andrew mccarthy and jami gertz (she was the most accurate version of the novel character actually). i also want to complain about the soundtrack, but i'll save it for later since i'm building a list of all songs mentioned on the novel and making up a playlist i want to compare to the movie's soundtrack. just to wrap this up for now, here's an interview with brett easton ellis about his view on the movie.
Reply by tmdb13060682
on April 11, 2017 at 7:14 PM
Yeah, this movie was rough to get through. I was actually gleeful when RDJ's character died.
Reply by acf
on April 11, 2017 at 7:16 PM
Gotta add two more:
Reply by tmdb13060682
on April 11, 2017 at 7:20 PM
For some reason, when I went into this film, I was expecting an Eighties version of The Last Days of Disco.
Reply by acf
on April 11, 2017 at 7:29 PM
Right? Blair was also happy Julian died, apparently: Jami Gertz was great as a dummy Beverly Hills cocaine addict girl, but damn she was awful in those dramatic scenes. It seemed like she really wanted to laugh but was trying really hard to cry, when Julian died.
Reply by acf
on April 11, 2017 at 7:30 PM
I haven't watched Last Days of Disco só um not really getting the reference. Is it as bad as Less than Zero?
Reply by tmdb13060682
on April 11, 2017 at 8:58 PM
No, actually it's quite good.
Reply by JustinJackFlash
on April 12, 2017 at 7:57 AM
I saw the film before reading the book. It was so bad it actually put me off reading it for a long time. Glad I eventually did but this film almost stopped me reading a great book.
Reply by acf
on April 12, 2017 at 8:08 AM
i'm sorry you had to read the book with those awful characters on your mind :( last night when i started reading imperial bedrooms again i was struggling for a while but i managed to get back to my original imagined versions of the characters. btw, imperial bedrooms is really gruesome (i've still got like 5 pages left but damn). have you read it as well?
Reply by JustinJackFlash
on April 12, 2017 at 8:20 AM
Yes, I thought it was great. The reason I ended up reading Less Than Zero was so I could read Imperial Bedrooms. I've read all Ellis' books apart from his short stories. Has anyone read The Informers? Is it worth reading?
I guess it would have been very difficult to make an accurate film of Less Than Zero back in the 80s as films were a lot more studio controlled. My guess is some studio exec obviously bought the book rights without reading it, because it was popular. Then shat himself when he found out what it was actually like so they turned it into a patronizing, drugs are bad, message movie.
Since the early 90s the indie cinema scene has grown a lot, changing the landscape, which is why we got more daring versions of American Psycho and Rules of Attraction.
Reply by acf
on April 12, 2017 at 4:14 PM
yeah Ellis' points that out, saying:
Reply by JustinJackFlash
on April 13, 2017 at 9:17 AM
That's a great story. Hollywood studio heads just don't get it. No wonder so many bad films come out.
Reply by acf
on April 13, 2017 at 9:23 AM
right? but as you pointed this movie was made in the 80s, maybe if it was adapted later in the 90s it would have been a different story. i finished reading imperial bedrooms yesterday and was mindblown. you think maybe the fact that the movie adaptation of less than zero was such a bummer influenced brett into turning clay into a script writer? i wish there was a decent movie adaptation of imperial bedrooms, it would kick most modern thrillers in the butt.
Reply by JustinJackFlash
on April 13, 2017 at 9:45 AM
Definitely.
Unfortunately I think it would be too difficult because of it's references to the Less Than Zero movie. But they might find a way. Or maybe they might try their hand at Less Than Zero again. I think with TV doing so well these days, maybe a TV show might be a better format for Ellis' style.
Reply by acf
on April 13, 2017 at 10:02 AM
like a twin peaks set in LA [sigh]
Reply by acf
on April 13, 2017 at 10:05 AM
or maybe they could pick up when brett did, starting by pointing out that less than zero was a flawed adaptation of a real story, then revealing the darker side of the story.