"We gots to talk business, friend."
June 12, 2024 11:39 AM Subscribe
Hollywood's Brief Cocaine Binge On '87-'88's Less Than Zero, Bright Lights, Big City, and Clean and Sober (Scott Tobias for The Reveal)
"Cocaine is God's way of saying that you're making too much money." — Robin Williams
posted by chavenet at 12:33 PM on June 12 [4 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 12:33 PM on June 12 [4 favorites]
> too much money
I thought that was Richard Pryor
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 12:44 PM on June 12
I thought that was Richard Pryor
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 12:44 PM on June 12
I never realized that they made Less Than Zero into a movie.
posted by Dr. Twist at 1:14 PM on June 12 [1 favorite]
posted by Dr. Twist at 1:14 PM on June 12 [1 favorite]
I never realized that they made Less Than Zero into a movie.
That's probably for the best.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 1:15 PM on June 12 [6 favorites]
That's probably for the best.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 1:15 PM on June 12 [6 favorites]
Yeah, I read it all but was pretty checked out at the word "brief" - I mean the binge was more than a decade long by the time those films saw daylight. I mean, Hotel California was '76, Studio 54 and Clapton's Cocaine were '77 and by '82 we were all the way to “Say hello to my little friend!”
posted by thecincinnatikid at 1:25 PM on June 12
posted by thecincinnatikid at 1:25 PM on June 12
I think the "brief" is about the relatively short window of "cocaine binge" movies like the three analyzed at length in this essay. In which cocaine is a main character, and the arc is of dissolution (usually with a dose of redemption). I was very much the target market for Less Than Zero the movie and Bright Lights, Big City, the movie, having been a huge fan of both books, having left CA for the East Coast to study, and having bathed in the luxury of teenage angst probably more than I should have. Both of those movies were huge disappointments to me, anyway. But this essay makes me want to rewatch them (and also to see The Rules of Attraction).
Of course there is plenty of blow all throughout Hollywood from the 70s right up to now (say, Scarface, Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street for just three off the top of my head. There's a coke joke in Annie Hall!) but maybe not as many using cocaine/with cocaine use as the narrative driver.
posted by chavenet at 1:38 PM on June 12 [7 favorites]
Of course there is plenty of blow all throughout Hollywood from the 70s right up to now (say, Scarface, Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street for just three off the top of my head. There's a coke joke in Annie Hall!) but maybe not as many using cocaine/with cocaine use as the narrative driver.
posted by chavenet at 1:38 PM on June 12 [7 favorites]
and ummm, Zero and Bright Lights were both much discussed cocaine novels before they were cocaine movies.
the article itself is an interesting read, except I come across something like this ...
The speed with which his girlfriend Blair (Jami Gertz), an aspiring model, and his best friend Julian (Robert Downey, Jr.), have spiraled into cocaine addiction and an ill-advised sexual relationship is almost comical—
... and I have to think Scott Tobias doesn't really know his cocaine narratives. Or more to the point, he doesn't know mine. I definitely saw people quickly destroyed by the stuff, or certainly sideswiped by it. In fact, my introduction to coke (late 1970s) was:
A. it's amazing, a little expensive but totally non-addictive
B. person who said this was dead within a year. Not by cocaine overdose but by cocaine addiction driven debt to very dangerous people resulting in suicide.
And then suddenly, cocaine was everywhere, still wearing its bullshit non-addictive t-shirt until well into the 1980s when similar stories became too numerous to ignore. Everybody knew somebody who'd gotten taken out.
Shitty drug. Shitty times. The mainstream culture of the 80s was as ugly as the drum sound on most of its big deal hits.
posted by philip-random at 2:03 PM on June 12 [7 favorites]
the article itself is an interesting read, except I come across something like this ...
The speed with which his girlfriend Blair (Jami Gertz), an aspiring model, and his best friend Julian (Robert Downey, Jr.), have spiraled into cocaine addiction and an ill-advised sexual relationship is almost comical—
... and I have to think Scott Tobias doesn't really know his cocaine narratives. Or more to the point, he doesn't know mine. I definitely saw people quickly destroyed by the stuff, or certainly sideswiped by it. In fact, my introduction to coke (late 1970s) was:
A. it's amazing, a little expensive but totally non-addictive
B. person who said this was dead within a year. Not by cocaine overdose but by cocaine addiction driven debt to very dangerous people resulting in suicide.
And then suddenly, cocaine was everywhere, still wearing its bullshit non-addictive t-shirt until well into the 1980s when similar stories became too numerous to ignore. Everybody knew somebody who'd gotten taken out.
Shitty drug. Shitty times. The mainstream culture of the 80s was as ugly as the drum sound on most of its big deal hits.
posted by philip-random at 2:03 PM on June 12 [7 favorites]
My cocaine narrative. Roommate gave me some before a party at our place. About 20 minutes later I realized mid-conversation that not only was I dominating the discussion, I was ramping into serious asshole territory, and could not stop talking louder and louder. Nope, not the drug for me, thanks.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:04 PM on June 12 [4 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:04 PM on June 12 [4 favorites]
totally non-addictive
I mean, have they ever actually tried cocaine?
posted by Literaryhero at 7:23 PM on June 12
I mean, have they ever actually tried cocaine?
posted by Literaryhero at 7:23 PM on June 12
as I guess I didn't make clear, at the time that cocaine first crossed my path (late 1970s), that was what everybody was saying about it. A fun, feel good, functional party high with no serious negative side effects beyond maybe the odd bleeding nose. that was the hype. Obviously bullshit in retrospect, but in the context of the times, all too easy for a dumbass eighteen or nineteen year old who thought himself cool to believe.
posted by philip-random at 7:48 PM on June 12 [1 favorite]
posted by philip-random at 7:48 PM on June 12 [1 favorite]
Oh, philip-random, it was a bit before my time, and I wasn't trying to pick at your comment. I believe that's what people were saying, it is just that in hindsight it seems completely nuts that anyone would argue cocaine wasn't addictive.
Incidentally, from the article: They’re ostensibly cautionary tales about the ruinous effects of cocaine, but they are also aspirational models for an audience that might dream of nightclubs or literary soirees.
My mom gave me Bright Lights, Big City when I was 14 or so, and I have no idea what she was thinking. I definitely took the wrong message from the book.
posted by Literaryhero at 8:32 PM on June 12
Incidentally, from the article: They’re ostensibly cautionary tales about the ruinous effects of cocaine, but they are also aspirational models for an audience that might dream of nightclubs or literary soirees.
My mom gave me Bright Lights, Big City when I was 14 or so, and I have no idea what she was thinking. I definitely took the wrong message from the book.
posted by Literaryhero at 8:32 PM on June 12
I never realized that they made Less Than Zero into a movie.
Shite movie, but The Bangles' cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter" is a baller theme song. Here's Suzanna Hoffs crushing it and I believe the term is slaying at 63.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:42 PM on June 15
Shite movie, but The Bangles' cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter" is a baller theme song. Here's Suzanna Hoffs crushing it and I believe the term is slaying at 63.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:42 PM on June 15
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posted by subdee at 12:32 PM on June 12 [6 favorites]