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Kevin Michael Vance
Writer - Portland, Oregon
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Title: THE GREAT GATSBY
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Year: 2013
Reviewed: September 04, 2013
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Birthday Cake-Second Highest Rating |
[Rating Definitions]
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Truthfully, I would never have gone to see this film on my own, but at the behest of my girlfriend we went. And we were assaulted by a film that was supposed to be sumptuous and grand, but looked cartoony and cheap, a movie lacking any real foundation, and instead relying heavily on hackneyed computer graphics, prolific scenes of the camera "swooshing", and frame after frame of actors placed in front of painfully obvious green screen. There is, however, a pretty good cast. And they do, most all of them, turn in pretty damn good performances. However, Luhrmann refuses to let the story tell itself in anything other than vomitous splendor. I do understand that that is indeed his style, but as stated before it is not a style I find aesthetically redeeming in any way. Not to mention all the hideous rap music, glaringly out of place in a period piece. (Yes. I know. We're talking Baz Luhrmann here, but that's what I thought was so pathetic about "Moulin Rouge"... they couldn't even be bothered to write their own music.) More masturbatory than magnificent. More syrupy than solid. More fluff, less filler.
On a positive note, it does make me want to read the book, which I am told is one of the great American masterpieces. "The Great Gatsby" gets a BIRTHDAY CAKE review.
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