Review: The Great Gatsby

Five movies in 21 years is not a lot. It’s even worse if this describes the workload of your favourite director. I saw my first Baz-Luhrmann-movie around 1995. It was a small dance movie with amazing music and great acting. But what fascinated me most was the way that the story was told – the director used dream sequences and crazy colours and it was just so over the top that I immediately fell in love with it. This first movie was ‘Strictly Ballroom’ and from then on I was in awe with everything Baz Luhrmann directed. As every girl back in 1996 I was in love with Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Romeo+Juliet’ and got my heart-broken when watching ‘Moulin Rouge’.  I even managed to watch revisal of his interpretation of Britten’s Opera ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’  while living in Sydney (though I will never grow to like Britten’s music). The only problem is that Mr. Luhrmann puts quality over quantity and while this is important, 5 movies in 21 years is in my opinion way too little!

His latest work is the adaptation of the Scott Fitzgerald’s classic ‘The Great Gatsby’. The film was 5 years in the making and there was a lot of discussion in the press over who would get which role. There was only one that was a lockdown from the get go: The lead is played by Leonardo DiCaprio and boy does he look handsome in this movie! It could be 1996 again and quite possibly will make women all over the world fall in love with Leo all over again. But he isn’t only a pretty face – he is mesmerizing in his portrayal of the love crazy Gatsby who only wants to impress the girl of his dreams. Carey Mulligan plays the female lead of Daisy Buchanan while Joel Edgerton plays her husband Tom Buchanan and Isla Fisher is Myrtle – Tom’s mistress. My biggest surprise was the cast of Toby Maguire as Nick Carraway the narrator of the story. I was hoping to be positively surprised by him as I was when I watched the first Spiderman but unfortunately I have to say I wasn’t. He did a fine job but compared against the rest of the cast he was a let down.

But this movie is so much more than its actors – the lead of the movie is its visual effects. I can’t describe it any better than a 3D movie that doesn’t need special glasses to abduct the viewer into a brave new world. Baz Luhrmanns movies have always been known for their visual artistry but he really tops everything with Gatsby’s lavish party’s and his over the top lifestyle. Some critics thought it was over the top and too much but considering what we are reading about our so-called high society and what kind of parties the Puff Daddies of this world are throwing then I really don’t find anything over the top that tries to depict the shallowness of this society.

It is a grand movie perfect for a grand story and even though it might take place in the 20’s it is as relevant today as it was back then. And Baz Lurhmann has once again created movie magic.

 

Review: Django Unchained

Just like being very disappointed by all the hype that surrounded ‘The Godfather’ when I finally got to watch ‘Pulp Fiction’ I really didn’t understand what everybody was raving about. Sure there were some funny lines, some interesting acting but all together it really wasn’t this amazing movie experience that everybody made it out to be – well at least not for me. So I didn’t really feel the need to watch any other Quentin Tarantino movies. Then a couple of years ago along came ‘Inglorious Basterds’ and while I am still not a great fan of all the violence and find Brad Pitt slightly overrated the movie in itself was very entertaining. So I figured that the latest Tarantino movie might be worth watching. Then along came all those nominations so it was a no-brainer.

Let me start with saying that this movie is looooong! So if you are planning something afterwards, make sure public transport is still running by the time you are leaving the cinema. Secondly – if your stomach is easily upset, you might want to skip this one. For the rest of us, let’s just make sure to not eat too much before the film and rather than planning a dinner afterwards, you might just need the digestive.

Once again the acting was spectacular – similar to Woody Allen who always seems to get oscar nominations out of most of his actors Tarantino seems to bring the best out of his cast. All of his cast? I wouldn’t go that far – while Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio and even Samuel Jackson all knocked it out of the park, Jamie Fox unfortunately didn’t. He just doesn’t persuade me as a dramatic actor. Then again if you have to play with some of the best actors out there I guess a lot of actors would have troubles, and so did Jamie.  But the rest was amazing and I was very, very happy when Christoph Waltz won last night at the Golden Globes.

There was a lot of discussion when the movie came out that it glorifies guns and violence but anybody who would say that clearly hasn’t seen the movie because really it doesn’t glorify violence but makes fun of it – in a way that only Tarantino is able to make fun of something very gruesome. I understand that some action requires some shots of flesh wounds but here it looked more like a remake of ‘Dead Bodies’ than anything else. I really wasn’t impressed by all this gore – superb acting, directing, editing, intriguing story of sorts (coming to that in a second) and then just losing it with all this gore it felt like a let down. The story on the other hand….it was charming in the beginning and interesting but after a while when it just wouldn’t get to the point it really got boring. Then when it came to the finish it was a let down because – that wasn’t the end, there was another one to come!

‘Django Unchained’ definitely deserves all the accolades the actors are getting and the writing is superb. Also the music was amazing – it was great to hear Eliza again (check her out! great singer from Italy) but as a whole the movie was just ok and too long. I am sure that I am mostly alone with this opinion but hey, I am used to that 😉

Trailerwatch: Clint Eastwoods “J. Edgar”

And it’s finally here: The first trailer of this much talked-about Oscar Candidad (though no-one has seen it so far) “J. Edgar”.

A film by Clint Eastwood with Leonardo Di Caprio as the man in questions (yup – this time NOT working with Scorcese), Naomi Watts, Josh Lucas and Armie Hamm. The screenplay was written by Oscar Winner Dustin Lance Black so this has written “Oscar” all over it.

It looks great I just have a feeling it will get Academy love just because it’s from Clint Eastwood. Then again Leonardo DiCaprio deserves some love after 3 nominations and no win.

Review: Inception

I enjoy movies for the pure pleasure of being in a different reality that usually has nothing to do with my own. Some movies might come closer to “real” reality others are so far away from it they might as well take place on a different planet. A Christopher Nolan movie usually seems to be placed in the former one but you end up wondering if you’ve just seen a movie from a different galaxy. For me he is the master of unpredictable story twists and extraordinary story telling. And while other directors fail at transforming clever stories into movies that people actually want to see, Christopher Nolan manages that with ease. Of course it is still an unanswerable question if quite so many people had watched “The Dark Knight” had it not been for the tragic death of it’s lead Heath Ledger but nevertheless it is still the 3rd highest grossing movie of all times. His latest “Inception” is no difference – a story hard to explain without giving too much away but turned into such a gripping movie that people flocked to the movies in order to see it. I assume that a lot of the money was coming from moviegoers who simply had to see it twice in order to get it. I sure have to watch it at least a couple of times until I can figure it all out. Then again I don’t think that the intention of this movie is for you to find out what it all means but rather let yourself immerse in this idea of being able to plant a thought in someone’s mind and hence being subjected to an “Inception”. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb who is in the business stealing thoughts but has some big personal issues that lead him to one last gig – the hardest of them all. He is supposed to make an inception – planting a new thought into someone’s mind – for a business man (Ken Watanabe) with the help of his colleagues (Joseph Gorden-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao) all the while fighting off his ex (Marion Cotillard). I liked this movie, I really did but I don’t think I got it and I also don’t think if I want to get it. Having seen most of Christopher Nolan’s movies, for me Inception isn’t too otherworldly as one might suspect because clearly Memento took that place long before. But it is one of those movies that you keep thinking about for a while after leaving the cinema (or turning off your DVD Player) though when thinking too much about it your head starts to hurt. I’m no big fan of trying to interpret too much into a story or go on wondering why this scene was there or what the director wanted to tell us with it. I rather just enjoy what I am seeing – the spectacular special effects of the movie and the great acting – and let myself transport to another reality. And then I watch it again in hope of getting it…..