Tag Archives: Moulin Rouge

May 30 2012
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Movies

Kanye and Jay-Z Are Always Appropriate: The Great Gatsby Trailer

So, after quite a while, Baz Luhrmann has decided to make another feature length film! Yay!!! And this time ladies and gentlemen, he is taking on the American classic that all high school students have to read (or at least SparkNote): The Great Gatsby. Trailer and discussion to follow, but first, for those of you who are wondering who is Baz Lurhmann and why should I care? Here is why you should care: he is the genius director behind one of our favorite movies of all time Moulin Rouge! And, for those of you who like edgy re-makes of Shakespeare classics, he also directed Romeo + Juliet with Claire Danes and Leondardo DiCaprio. It’s a pretty awesome version actually and surprisingly true to the text. We legitimately really like both of those movies and maybe cry every time we watch Moulin Rouge! IT’S REALLY HARD TO WATCH EWAN MCGREGOR CRY OKAY?

Clearly, we really like Baz Luhrmann and his unique style of directing and creative vision. So much so that we wanted to look up what else he has done and it turns out that, well…. he hasn’t actually done that much. He has completed a grand total of four feature length films in the past and… two of them were great? We have already mentioned that we really like Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet, but his other two films were ok. There was that grand epic Australia that maybe seven people saw, and Strictly Ballroom which is about competitive ballroom dancing. We realize that Strictly Ballroom is actually a pretty decent movie, but it is not quite on par with Moulin Rouge! So basically Baz Luhrmann is kind of hit or miss with us, and while he definitely is an amazing director, we didn’t really know what to think about him helming The Great Gatsby. But then the trailer came out.

Whoa, wait, what??? That actually looked kind of cool. But, at the same time, we are not 100% convinced that this is going to be awesome. We are definitely going to see it… but until we see more we still have our doubts, which is why for this trailer, we have our list of WINS and then Questions.

WINS

  • The use of Jay-Z, Kanye and Frank Ocean’s “No Church in the Wild”. We like Kanye and Jay-Z a lot, can you tell?
  • The casting (besides an age difference discussed below) is actually really spot-on. Tobey Maguire especially looks like he will be a perfect Nick Carraway, and despite age concerns, Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan will be great as Gatsby and Daisy.
  • The cinematography and costumes look SPECTACULAR. To be expected from a Baz Luhrmann movie, but still impressive. We will be shocked if they aren’t nominated for Oscars at least in these two categories.
  • It’s coming out at Christmas, so the studio thinks this movie is a real awards contender… so hopefully it really is that good!
  • The 1920s is actually the perfect decade for Baz Luhrmann’s imagination. We think he should continue to make films set in this time period so he can continue to re-imagine the Roaring Twenties as even more ridiculously awesome and bedazzled!

Questions

  • Age difference between Leo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. In the novel, Daisy and Gatsby are supposed to be about the same age. In real life, Leo and Carey are 11 years apart… and it looks like they are.
  • Ummm… where is John Leguizamo? We thought he was in all of Baz Luhrmann’s films… maybe he’ll have a surprise cameo as his character from Moulin Rouge! Fingers crossed people!!
  • What? This movie is in 3-D? We don’t particularly approve of this new 3-D trend which unfortunately makes us pay more money to see movies… and it seems particularly unnecessary when filming a literary classic.

So, the jury is still out on this movie, but we will definitely still see it to make up our minds! It is a shame that we all have to wait until Christmas to see this one and finally decide: is this another Moulin Rouge or another Australia? Let’s hope, for all our sakes, for a hit.

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