#13: See The Great Gatsby

Finally, this movie has come out! I’ve been looking forward to it for a while. I love the crazy, ADHD ecstasy-trip style of Baz Luhrman – as seen in Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge – and I love Leonardo Dicaprio (even if he does overuse the filler word ‘huh?’ in every role)

Muahahaha can never be unseen you will now notice the ‘huh’ every time you see a Leo movie

So the combination of these two seemed perfect.

I’m one of the few people who never had to read The Great Gatsby in high school. Because I felt like I was out of the pop culture loop, I read it independently in university. But with no teacher telling me what was good about it, I didn’t really get what the fuss was about at the time.

I bought tickets for my mom and me to see the movie last night (it’s Mother’s Day weekend, dontcha know!), and I’m pretty sure I really liked this movie. More than I remember liking the book, anyway, and I think now that I’ve seen the movie version, I ‘get it’ a little more.

Luhrman says true to his extremely gorgeous, exaggerated sets and costumes, making it look amazing. My favourite scene is probably the one where Gatsby is preparing Nick’s little cottage for Daisy’s visit, and goes way overboard with flowers and landscaping - eye candy set design. 

All the characters are cast really well – I don’t really remember the character of Jordan Baker from the book, but in the movie she’s actually the person who intrigued me most. She’s a gorgeous, crazy tall, single, professional lady golfer in 1922 who hangs around with rich people and movie stars, but despite this exciting backstory, we really only get to see her as someone in the background for Nick to talk to while everyone else ignores him. I want a sequel about Jordan Baker, the Amazonian flapper-golfer with all the hot gossip!

Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker is the COOLEST 

It’s always easier to write about what I didn’t like, rather than what I did like – and doing that gives the impression that I didn’t enjoy it at all. I did! Go see it! But some parts of this movie were a little grating. 

For example, there is a lot of repetition that in unnecessary and kind of annoying. In the coal yards, there is a billboard that very obviously references the iconic original cover art for the novel. The first time you see it, it’s like “hey, cool! They included that in some way.” But then they show the billboard like 10 times afterwards JUST IN CASE you didn’t get it the first time. 

Same goes for the use of Lana Del Rey’s theme song, ‘Will You Still Love Me When I’m No Longer Young and Beautiful.’ It’s a pretty, misty song that is perfect for the first scene in which you hear it. But then you hear it in basically every other scene until the end of the movie. 

Leo has replaced his ‘huh’ with ‘Old Sport’ – which, I know, is one of his characters ‘things’ from the book. But it is used ad nauseum. So much that the teenage girls beside me in the theatre would snigger every time Leo says ‘Old Sport,’ basically after every line.  

All in all, I would for shiz recommend seeing this movie, even if just for the gorgeousity of it all.