Synopsis: “The Great Gatsby” follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy, and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super-rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles. Academy Award® nominee DiCaprio (“Blood Diamond,” “Aviator”) plays Jay Gatsby, with Tobey Maguire starring as Nick Carraway; Joel Edgerton and Oscar® nominee Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) as Tom and Daisy Buchanan; Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke as Myrtle and George Wilson; and newcomer Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker. Indian film legend Amitabh Bachchan will play the role of Meyer Wolfsheim.
Just as we were beginning to tire of all of these Kickstarter campaign stories from the trendsetting uber-successful “Veronica Mars” to the backlash-ridden Zach Braff project to a second "Friday Night Lights" (yes, a movie of a TV show of a movie), James Franco and Seth Rogen throw us for a loop. Wh...
Read More »Insatiable multi-tasker James Franco is back at film criticism again, and this time has a few words to impart on Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby," which opens the Cannes Film Festival today before the film's European roll-out. Franco's a fan, and calls out the critics who "ravaged the film for not ...
Read More »Movies with racist portrayals of African Americans haven't hurt their Oscar chances much--consider "Secretariat" or "Million Dollar Baby" or any number of well-meaning racially-charged movies that had problematic representations of African Americans ("The Help," "The Blind Side," "Crash," "Driving M...
Read More »Even with last week's major release becoming the second highest opening weekend gross of all time and Cannes just a week away, much of this week's focus seemed to lie squarely on today's major release: Baz Luhrmann's heavily anticipated/derided "Great Gatsby" 3D extravaganza. Throughout the week, we...
Read More »Some weekends are just perfect for dishing out oodles of death and destruction. This one, for instance, brings us a theater schedule that features all manner of gory violence and evil plotting, followed by some good old-fashioned, cold-blooded killin' sprees. We have revenge-hungry assassins, period...
Read More »Within the span of a couple months, audiences and media have witnessed the debauched excess of the American Dream gone sour, of attractive young men and women imbibing themselves to delirium, violence and self-destruction. If there ever were a comment on the failed hopes and ideals of our curren...
Read More »Canadian writer-director-actress Sarah Polley's brilliant documentary on her enigmatic family history, "Stories We Tell," leads the pack of a slew of top-reviewed limited releases this weekend. Ben Wheatley's "Sightseers," the follow-up to frightfest "Kill List," also hits theaters and VOD, along wi...
Read More »Frankly, I was dreading Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of "The Great Gatsby," but I wouldn’t have anticipated that this master of gaudy excess had a genuine desire to do justice to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel.
Read More »Novel? What novel? I went into Baz Luhrmann's 3-D, Jay Z-soundtracked The Great Gatsby assuming that the kindest, smartest approach would be to forget there was ever a book behind it. Surprisingly, the film is more attached to F. Scott Fitzgerald than I expected, and that turns out to be i...
Read More »The Great Gatsby is both irresistible to filmmakers and notoriously hard to adapt. All that color and glamour comes crashing up against the eloquence of Fitzgerald's prose and the ineffability of Gatsby's dreams. Baz Luhrmann's new version gives us a wondrous performance by Leonardo DiCapr...
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