Less Than Zero (Film vs Book)

Less Than Zero is Brett Easton Ellis' debut novel. It features his trademark stream of conciousness style writing and his music, fashion and pop culture references. The film is a bit of a clumsy mess. The book is bleak in tone with the main character, Clay being the outsider looking in; feeling slowly alienated from his friends and the party scene.

The film came out in 1987. It is very much a product of the time. During the time there was a lot of anti-drugs campaigning, some would class it as propaganda. Nancy Reagan's Just Say No campaign was prevalent at the time, which lead to many TV special episodes including a now laughable attempt by Disney and Warner Bros. The film seems to almost cash-in on this trend and seems archaic as a result. Clay is an anti-drugs campaigner in the film and tries to save his heroin addicted friend, Robert Downey Jr. (Julian). Some method acting in the casting there. In the book, the character Clay was much more complex and harder to define; I think he did  the whole "drugs thing", but was never really into it. The ending involves Clay witnessing his drug-dealer "friend", Rip showing off his latest acquisition: a 12-year-old sex slave. The final scene is omitted from the film and instead shows his friend, Julian dying of a drug overdose in his car. Clay viewing a snuff film at a party is also missing from the film. The scenes mentioned might be missing from the film due to censorship reasons. Nobody was sure if snuff films were real or not and it was a debate which was still raging into the 90s and while the snuff film being missing from the scene is non-contentious; the sex slave scene was a pivotal moment in the book. It tested Clay's moral compass and was left fairly ambiguous. It also showed that Clay was drifting further apart from his friends and maybe didn't want to be a part of their lives any more.

The film is a period piece and it definitely captured the downtrodden glamour and excess of the 80s well. The casting is good with all characters looking the part. Robert Downey Jr. is a great actor, but in this film he gave a B-, maybe even a C performance and was a bit clichéd. Andrew McCarthy as lead character Clay is just right. Jami Gertz as Blair, looks the part, but was a bit hammy in places. The soundtrack is also largely shit and for some reason Clay's Elvis Costello poster (a key point of the novel) is replaced with an obvious Jim Morrison one (yawn) and a Hüsker Dü one (why?).

To be honest it isn't a bad film, just a fairly average one. As mentioned before the politics of the film date it terribly and with a better script and a director willing to take a risk by showing some of the more controversial aspects it could have been a superb film. In the 21st century, Less Than Zero is rarely seen, talked about or shown on TV, at least in the UK. There was rumours of a remake with Quentin Tarrantino as director and Roger Avery scripting; I would love to see it materialise.

More TVs than a drag queen convention

Cinema of the Weird: 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964)

3 Nuts was pretty much a career ender for all involved. It's a comedy, almost a screwball comedy and part farce with some striptease scenes and nudity thrown in for good measure. To an extent star and director, Tommy Noonan was a few years ahead of the game. The British comedy series of films Carry On where still in their infancy in 1964 and some of the more popular titles such as Camping, Screaming and Up the Khyber hadn't been released. Carry On films are similar in some ways as they feature some implied sexual humour, brief nudity, but they up the farcical humour. The humour in 3 Nuts whilst absurd also deals with the dark theme of mental health issues in this case, Schizophrenia. It could be seen as a satire on the psychobabble shrinks use and media representation of mental health issues, but that is giving the film too much credit.

This film was a flop for Tommy Noonan, as I've said maybe it was too soon and whilst Tommy Noonan was a big-ish name star back in the day, if it had someone like Peter Sellers playing the lead role maybe it would have had more box office clout. But, I can't deny Noonan does a superb job at playing the lead and the direction is as good as any other crazy comedy from the early 60s. Mamie Van Doren plays Saxie Symbol (oh my aching sides) and her acting is of a high standard and is convincing at being both vulnerable and sexy, but she doesn't have the screen presence as say, Marilyn Monroe. Noonan went on to produce Cottonpickin' Chickenpickers this film was also unsuccessful and remains largely unseen today. Noonan died from a malignant brain tumour in 1968 which is a real shame as I think he had a lot of talent. Mamie Van Doren appeared in the film Slackers in 2002, Imdb list this as her latest film role, she has a minor cult following.

3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt is a curio to say the least. Not sexually explicit enough to even be considered a sexploitation film and at the time the sexier scenes may have alienated audiences, if the film was more graphic maybe it would have done the rounds on the grindhouse circuit. The film is arguably too rude for family viewing which stopped it appealing to a broader audience. It is well worth checking out as it has some great comic performances and is fairly obscure.

Mamie Van Doren as Saxie Symbol

Sexy Cinema - Marfa Girl (2013)

Adam Mediano and Drake Burnette

I have seen most of Larry Clark's film, but I was late seeing this one, simply because I didn't know it existed. Marfa Girl was released exclusively and solely through Larry Clark's website as a digital download. No cinema release, no straight to video, purely digital. Larry Clark was said to be annoyed by the way Ken Park was treated by distributors and critics, due to its sexual content, which was the main reason for an online only release of Marfa Girl. The film was priced at $5.99 for 24 hours access, the film has now been removed as it is now distributed by Spotlight Pictures, does that mean a DVD or Blu Ray release is imminent?

Set in Marfa, Texas; the film is a multiple character driven story about its inhabitants. Adam, a 16 year old, weed smoking, promiscuous male is failing his college class. The character sounds a lot like Telly, from earlier Clark\Korine film, Kids. I suppose, it could describe any number of teenagers in the world today. The difference between Adam and Telly is, Adam seem to have heart and be a good person, rather than be hell-bent on his own self-destruction. Marfa Girl (Drake Burnette) is a trust fund artist that tries to shake things up. We've also got boarder patrol agent, Tom. He's a sexist, racist, bully and the least likeable character.

It's no surprise that issues of immigration and identity play a big part in this film. And to me at least, it was glaringly obvious that the director was using the characters in the film as a mouthpiece for his opinions. This is nothing new in cinema, just look at any Godard film. Coupled with naturalistic acting and a believable plot, the dialogue for me in most parts seemed fake and took away from the realism. The film streamed in 480p, I was disappointed it wasn't higher, but the film looked gorgeous and very crisp.

For Larry Clark fans, it is more of the same. I'm not sure which film is his masterpiece, Kids, Bully or Ken Park - maybe he doesn't have one. Either way, I doubt the majority of audiences will be disappointed if they are looking for a confrontational slice-of-life drama.

Lindsay Jones