The Great Gatsby

Nick Carraway as an ancestor of Ezra Koenig

Well, I've seen the Luhrmann rendition, and my favorite screen adaptation of Gatsby remains the one in 2010's The Extra Man. (Am I the only ILXor to have seen this?)

I will say the new version, like the recent version of Anna Karenina, is hyperactive where previous renditions were static, but that's about the only thing to be said on behalf of either production.

Question: Can Tobey Maguire Grow Facial Hair?

btw this movie was completely awesome fuiud

i think that 'fidelity to the work' is... an empty concept. kind of like comic book nerds who show up at iron man 3 press conferences and complain about why iron man's suit was tinted cinnamon in the movie and not maroon, like in the books. who really cares... u dont really need to be thinking about the book at all when watching this, no tombs of idols are being desecrated. the only complaint i had was maybe baz slops on the sentiment too thick at the end, w/ the lingering shot on gatsby as he falls backwards into the pool, but ennhhh, if youre in for a dime youre in for a dollar. loved the soundtrack to this, esp as synths play while there's a jazz band on screen. it's just a movie...

i think this movie had the best photographed martinis ive ever seen, they shimmer in every scene. also the bowl-glasses (hopefully a mixologist will tell me the proper name for this vessel) look so classy~~

hard to overstate how much those last two posts lowered my estimation of you

lol

damn, balls dropped his level of appreciation for me ;-(

iirc that makes your Persona less powerful

balls with the necessary tough love

also the bowl-glasses (hopefully a mixologist will tell me the proper name for this vessel) look so classy~~

champagne coupes, easy find at most Salvation Army-type places, used today mostly for cocktails instead of champagne

Nick Carraway as an ancestor of Ezra Koenig

I love this

damn, balls dropped

nicelydone.gif

who really cares...

well, when you put it that way

i'm sorry that baz sullied the prestigious doormat of f. scott fitzgerald with his dingo boots

comparing books to movies is never a good proposition, no matter how highly you esteem either the book or the movie

champagne coupes, easy find at most Salvation Army-type places, used today mostly for cocktails instead of champagne

― Sadly, 99.99 percent of sheeple will never wake up (I DIED), Sunday, May 19, 2013 11:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

nice, will pick some up for the house parties i'm never gonna have

on one hand, i agree with you, because i don't think complaints about the general anachronistic flair of the production design & music cues are relevant criticism. but this version fundamentally changes the story and makes romantic love the central theme, and changes the characters in order to make it happen. it's not a "wrong" interpretation of the novel, really, but it's pretty facile and simplistic in a way that just empties the story of any relevance, imho. i don't think it's outrageous or fussy to want to see some more complexity from an adaptation.

aybe baz slops on the sentiment too thick at the end, w/ the lingering shot on gatsby as he falls backwards into the pool, but ennhhh,

WHOA! Spoiler alert!

Surprised he didn't shout he was having a Nestea Plunge.

it's not a "wrong" interpretation of the novel, really, but it's pretty facile and simplistic in a way that just empties the story of any relevance, imho. i don't think it's outrageous or fussy to want to see some more complexity from an adaptation.

― a ridiculous clusterfuck of totally uncool jokers (elmo argonaut), Monday, May 20, 2013 10:20 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah... i mean it's not OMG SHOCKING to anyone that a love story is one of the cores of the novel, but if you start saying stuff like 'empties the story of any relevance' again that's gonna be in comparison to the novel... it's best to just try to take this movie in on its own terms, most of us haven't read the great gatsby since high school so should be pretty easy to do

6. there's a throwaway scene of a three black people listening to "Izzo" and riding in a car as the camera pans over cases of Moet. why, Luhrmann?

my take is probably wrong but i felt like maybe this was one way that baz was trying to balance the grosser elements of the source material, i.e. you sorta need tom's diatribe against the 'colored empire' to show how bad of a guy he is + you need to show all his servants are black... so idk, showing that the wall street excess didn't just only include white ppl? cf also the heavyweight boxer

As we crossed Blackwell's Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.

so it's lifted right from the novel but stripped of nick's nonchalant racism

ah

sorry but tbh if you adapt one of the most famous and familiar texts of all time you don't get to cry 'don't compare it to the book, it stands on its own merits!'

one of the most famous and familiar texts of all time you, say, please tell me more abouzZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzz

sounds like you are target audience for this movie alright

why did u like the movie 乒乓

because it was a spectacle and i love spectacles

the party scenes alone are worth the price of admission

sounds like you are target audience for this movie alright

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, May 20, 2013 12:56 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

yup, a completely uncultured and uneducated boor, dont even read the new yorker, 乒乓 the jock over here

i thought the movie was really well cast, i actually did enjoy leo's performance a lot... ever since i saw that gif of him doing nicholson eyebrows i have a sneaking suspicion his yoga teacher or w/e taught him how to control every single muscle on his face individually. he sort of has a perfect appropriate mask for every scene, it's great

i though the middle part of this was really good, i liked that i sort of lived on the surface of things, but the end was complete garbage

also every time he says 'old sport' it sounds like 'old spoaht' but sometimes the r's slip back in and u cant tell if thats james gatz's midwestern provincialism sneaking back in or is it just that leo is terrible with accents

a young nicholson might've been a good gatsby

because it was a spectacle and i love spectacles

― 乒乓, Monday, May 20, 2013 12:57 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

he takes old-time footage from back then and turns it into 3D, theres a lot of planes that fly overhead and then all of a sudden ur zooming in from 10000 feet to ground level in 3 seconds like in that old trailer they'd show in front of IMAX science films at the franklin institute, it's really inexplicable

he literally asks WEGA or w/e studio effects house to recreate NYC for him, and long island, so he can have shots of just zooming along the water through mist

re popular texts, I don't remember John Huston's The Bible being thoroughly terrible; George C Scott was a good Abraham.

nb: i dont think ive seen a baz film from start to finish, also i love spectacles, i love times square, i love neon lights and places that feel like day in the night

is it just that leo is terrible with accents

yup

regardless of whether it's an accident tho i like that

haha i mean i guess we are at odds about spectacle, because i could not really deal with pirhana 3D: myrtle's mutilated breast fly @ u face

why weren't the eyes of t.j. eckleburg wearing 3D glasses, missed opportunity imho

we are dooooly appointed old spoats

"I love spectacles"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2C_xkImTZPE/TeMpAkOs7gI/AAAAAAAAACo/Hu5_WIXQrPA/s320/doctor_t__j__eckleburg_by_sukimd2.jpg

The New Statesman's critic actually ended his review with a joke about why Eckleburg should be wearing 3D glasses.

Erm, "I love spectacles"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2C_xkImTZPE/TeMpAkOs7gI/AAAAAAAAACo/Hu5_WIXQrPA/s320/doctor_t__j__eckleburg_by_sukimd2.jpg

why weren't the eyes of t.j. eckleburg wearing 3D glasses, missed opportunity imho

Arf. They made the Eckleburg billboard look reminiscent of the novel's most famous cover instead:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Gatsby_1925_jacket.gif/200px-Gatsby_1925_jacket.gif

the eyes of eckleburg were partly inspired by that cover -- fitz wrote to his publisher telling him not to change the cover because he'd 'written it into the book.'