Jose here. The summer not only brings us cheesy special effects movies and superhero blockbusters, it also announces the start of something else in movie theaters: the arrival of Oscar season trailers! Yesterday we got our first glimpse at Baz Luhrmann's take on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby which, no surprise, showed us Baz at his Baziest.
Those of you who were expecting him to show some restraint will be highly disappointed (although didn't you learn your lesson with Australia?) while the rest will rejoice in the way he flashes his unique visual style. Anyway, before you pick a team, let's do our usual Yes, No, Maybe So...
Yes
Carey Mulligan gets a lot of flack for her ubiquitousness but the truth is that unlike other actresses of her generation she can play more than one "type". While some might say that Daisy Buchanan is nothing but a more corrupted ancestor of Jenny from An Education, the truth is that the minute CaMu appears on that trailer, everything else seems to vanish around her. Remember this is the kind of woman you'd literally go to prison for and never before has she looked lovelier and more "movie star" than here.
Everything in the first twenty seconds of that trailer screams Moulin Rouge!
Fitzgerald purists who might be worried that Baz will rape one of the grand American novels, should relax, considering that the trailer proves that Baz and his co-writers captured some of the greatest moments in the largely introspective book. The scene with Jay (Leonardo DiCaprio) throwing his shirts all over Daisy, while she narrates and mentions the "most beautiful shirts" literally sent shivers down my spine. See also, how Baz captures their rainy rendezvous, down to the "white linen suit" worn by Gatsby.
No
The CGI looks slightly tacky. Although Baz usually knows what he's doing and this movie after all will be released in 3D. So let's wait and see, but for the most part everything CGI looked like it was out of Speed Racer.
Maybe So
The time when Leonardo DiCaprio was one of the dreamiest actors onscreen is now long gone. Sure, he's turned into one of the most fascinating actors of our times, but he no longer has that magic he had in movies like Titanic and of course Baz's own Romeo + Juliet.
His Gatsby feels slightly too old and gasp perhaps not handsome enough. After all, in the book he is supposed to be almost ethereal in his overall appeal. I am sure I am not alone in thinking that someone like Armie Hammer would've been more adequate for this part. Remember how he stole Julia's breath in Mirror, Mirror?
Baz tends to overdo his villains. Sometimes it works wonders, the Duke's wickedness highlighted the overall artifice in Moulin Rouge! but when it fails, it's unbearable, think of the ridiculous part David Wenham had to play in Australia. The truth of the matter is that Tom Buchanan is no villain and having Joel Edgerton play him as a mustached screaming lunatic seems to be slightly over the top. As usual, we'll have to wait and see...
For now we're giving it a big YES. You all know how devoted we are to Baz here, right? So now it's your turn, will it be Yes, No or Maybe So for The Great Gatsby?