The Great Gatsby

DRAMA, ROMANCE

Old Sport

9.0 out of 10 | MOVIE, DVD

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Rated: PG-13 Some violent images, sexual content, smoking, partying and brief language
Release Date: May 10, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 22 minutes

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Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce, based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joel Edgerton, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, Elizabeth Debicki

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SYNOPSIS:  A Midwestern war veteran finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbor.

REVIEW: Baz Luhrmann, famed screenwriter/director of Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, and Strictly Ballroom, returns to feature films in a big way after a string of short films. Re-teaming with longtime writing partner Craig Pearce, they adapt the frequently remade story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire, Brothers) stares out the windows of a sanitarium, morbidly unhappy with his life. When the doctor tries to coax out of him a memory of a better part of his life, Nick reminisces about a man he once met that was filled with hope and vigor. That idealistic young man was named Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained). Carraway describes Gatsby as being of the new wealth, meeting him in the summer of 1922 on Long Island, New York. Throwing more than lavish parties at his home for the greater populace, Gatsby holds a mystery close to his vest that Carraway wonders about. Carraway rents the smallish cottage next to the Gatsby estate where both of them are able to look across the bay at Carraway's cousin Daisy Buchanan's (Carey Mulligan, Drive) house. Spending most of his time trying to become a decent stock and bond broker on Wall Street Carraway soon finds himself swept up with the extravagant parties that Gatsby throws. Where did this man named Gatsby come from? What are his motivations? What are the mysteries behind the man who some say is a relative of the German Kaiser, an assassin, or a secret agent? And what is his fixation on the lovely Daisy Buchanan, wife of old money heir Tom (Joel Edgerton, Zero Dark Thirty)

Writer/director Baz Luhrmann, known for his inventive interpretation of Romeo + Juliet, takes on one of America's most treasured pieces of literature. Robert Redford and Alan Ladd have made their mark in versions of The Great Gatsby. Luhrmann uses his unique style of directing to weave an original tapestry of his own. Using the backdrops of the heady days of the early 1920s Luhrmann creates the gorgeous locales of Long Island and New York City, adding in wonderful costumes, and all the glamour and glitz that the Roaring 20s provided.

The cast is spectacular, spectacular! Although DiCaprio's Gatsby doesn't appear right on away in the story he does steal the show as the title character. With every slick back of his hair, every reference to his friends as 'Old Boy', and every glance or glare speaking volumes more than the elegant Fitzgerald dialogue, DiCaprio proves again why he is an A-lister. Joel Edgerton holds his own as he Errol Flynn-esque Tom Buchanan who Gatsby battles against for a specific treasure that he owns. Edgerton is both imposing and charismatic as a heir of old money. Tobey Maguire is the perfect choice of the young man Carraway trying to make his way to world caught between these two titans of wealth. The female cast is equal to the task as objects of affection and of objectification by these men and their boys club. Isla Fisher (Rise of the Guardians) is Myrtle Wilson, a kept conquest of Tom Buchanan who knows how to party to excess. Carey Mulligan, a busy young actress, sparkles with innocence and a secret knowledge of how the world works as the object of affection, Daisy. And rounding of the main cast is Elizabeth Debicki as the golf starlet Jordan Baker, poised and postured as if made of porcelain. 

As one who was never forced to read 'The Great Gatsby' in high school literature class I was able to go into the viewing of this film with complete innocence. Like Nick Carraway I was wide-eyed with wonder at the decadence and debauchery that came with money. I could go on about The Great Gatsby as a literary allegory for the 20s and the gateway to the Great Depression of the 30s, but I am more impressed with what I enjoy onscreen. From the cinematic spectacle of it all, to the musical score and use modern rap, pop, and R and B, to an incredible cast roaring with the 20s, The Great Gatsby enthralls with mystery, misdirection, lost romance, and the excess that preceded a depression that proved greater than Gatsby could ever become.

Old money or new money, it doesn't matter. No matter what social and economic circles we travel, there is always drama that exceeds our great expectations. The Great Gatsby is one of the best dramatic and visually appealing films so far this year.

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Django Unchained

DRAMATIC ACTION/ADVENTURE

Off the Chain

★ ★ ★ 1/2 out of 5 | Movie - DVD - Rental

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Rated: R Strong graphic violence, language and some nudity.
Release Date: December 25, 2012
Runtime: 2 hours 21 minutes

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Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writers: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar

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SYNOPSIS: With the help of a dentist looking for information on wanted men, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

REVIEW: Festival darling with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, instant legend writer/director Quentin Tarantino has set the standard with his unique pulpy cinematic exploitation films. He continued with Kill Bill: Vol I and II, Grindhouse, and his history skewing Inglourious Basterds. What genre hasn't he properly tackled? It looks like the western is still fertile ground for Tarantino's unique touch. Writing and directing Django Unchained will surely add all of Tarantino's flair. And look, Quentin may finally get a chance to have his characters use guns! 

Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz, The Three Musketeers) interrupts two slavers walking a group of newly bought slaves to their new owners. Schultz questions Django (Jamie Foxx, Horrible Bosses) about a group of three brothers who are wanted by the law, hoping that Django would be able to recognize these men if he were to see them again. Taking ownership of Django, Schultz and he ride through Texas and into Tennessee in pursuit of their bounty. Once their task is complete, Shultz offers to teach Django what he knows of the bounty trade and promises to help find to whom Django's wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington, A Thousand Words) was sold to. Checking official documents, Schultz and Django uncover that plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar) paid for Broomhilda, and hatch a plan to buy her back.

Quentin Tarantino returns to the helmer's chair to offer us his version of the Wild West. Clint Eastwood may have had his day as the new modern western standard as The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, but Tarantino twists the genre around to give Jamie Foxx's Django a chance to create a new modern interpretation on the classic gunslinging motif. Bullets still fly, vengeance is still sought, and the real good guys do not have to wear white hats. Some of the classic visuals are still in play - the snow capped mountains in the distance, the silhouettes of horsemen trailing into a burning gold and magenta sunset, the long pan shots of men on horseback on a long trek, and the twitching fingers dangling an inch above a holstered six-shooter.

What Tarantino does in Django Unchained is what he does best. Growing up in the video rental shops, his love for exploitation films is still evident. From the bright red of the title sequence to the story-filling sing song of Django's ballad, you would think you were on set for a lost Shaft in the desert movie. Mixing classic western background music with 70s folk with current day rap, Tarantino uses all the right chords to convey his thematic western message.

Cowboys, bounty hunters, and even plantation owners, are a dirty bunch. Spitting onto anything but a spittoon, bathing one a month if one needs it or not - the trails are dusty and the bodies unwashed. Only the most beautiful are pulled out from the wretches, while the rest are sent to toil in the fields. Calvin Candie's Candie Land sits in the bowels of Mississippi, marble rising from the dirt like a pale jewel in a mossy grove of trees. Every character, from Candie minion Billy Crash (Walton Goggins, Lincoln) and family lawyer Leonide Moguy (Dennis Christopher, Deadwood), to house slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson, The Avengers) and Pinkerton-esque Butch Pooch (James Remar, Transformers: Dark of the Moon), has a layer of grit or the weight of the world on their shoulders.

The standouts of Django Unchained are Christoph Waltz's Dr King Schultz, Leonardo Dicaprio's Calvin Candie, and Samuel L. Jackson's Stephen. Sure, Jamie Foxx struts a mean rug, but I could listen and watch Waltz all day. Just like in Inglourious Basterds, Waltz mesmerizes with every stride and eloquent utterance. Dicaprio, as the power-hungry and vindictive slave and plantation owner, is as smooth and lethal as a near slumbering bear protecting its honey. His southern charm covers a simmering hatred for most things not his own. And Samuel L. Jackson, and Candie's head house slave Stephen, may be the most vile of them all. His "Uncle Tom" position may give him the rule of the homestead and the help while Candie is away, but his loyalties to his owner is only matched by his self-preservation.

Django Unchained is an uber-violent western effort from the mind of Tarintino - just as you would expect it would be. Funny, irreverent, clever, bloody, sometimes unnecessary, Django will not disappoint QT fans. Maybe not his best work from his canon of films, this western certainly stands out as a little more controversial than most.

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J. Edgar

A Man's Ambitions

Director: Clint Eastwood

Writers: Dustin Lance Black
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Donovan

SYNOPSIS: J. Edgar Hoover changed the face of law enforcement during his tenure as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But behind every criminal collar and new law hid a man with secrets and shames that could destroy everything he had built.

REVIEW: With an acting career spanning 65 years and a directing career since 1971, Clint Eastwood has become a cinematic institution. Behind the camera again for his 35th directorial effort, Eastwood takes a story written by Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black to attempt to bring to life J. Edgar Hoover and his reign in the United States government, first as part of the Justice department, the Bureau of Investigation then as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

John Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception) was born January 1st, 1895, in Washington, D.C.. As soon as he left graduated college, Hoover was hired by the Justice Department. From there, J. Edgar became acting director of the Bureau of Investigation, and as the first and longest reigning Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Along the way, Hoover enlarged the FBI into an expansive efficient investigative branch of the government. He used the FBI to root out suspected subversives, Communist radicals, Great Depression gangsters like John Dillinger, and the kidnapper of the Charles Lindbergh baby.

Expanding the powers of his federal crime-fighting government branch throughout his career, J. Edgar Hoover utilized all the powers at his disposal as director. At the guidance and upbringing of his mother (Judi Dench), Edgar portrayed an outwards appearance of patriotic and personal ambition. But behind closed doors, Hoover hid repressed homosexual feelings, insecurities, and a stutter. Throughout his career, Edgar kept with him a close confidant and eventual Deputy Director Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer, The Social Network). They ate lunch and dinner together, went to the clubs and vacationed together. All along, executive secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts) provided support and confidence for Edgar and his personal and government secrets.

Eastwood tells the story from the perspective of J. Edgar as he retells of his youth and his career to various young special agents as they type up his professional memoirs. A little disjointed at first, we quickly fall into the rhythm of Hoover's eloquent monologue of self promotion. DiCaprio is stellar as Hoover, at all ages. Dench as Hoover's mother Annie speaks volumes of her controlling and demanding nature while uttering few words. Armie Hammer as long-time friend Clyde Tolson is both brother and possible lover, his eyes betraying his pain and longing. But while the aging make up for DiCaprio's Hoover and Watts' Gandy are exceptional, Hammer's older Tolson seems plastic and unreal.

Eastwood looks long and hard into the professional and personal life of J. Edgar Hoover. At 2 hours and 17 minutes, we catch glimpses of the defeat of domestic Communist radicalism, gangsters and corruption. All the while, the use of excessive force and the bending of the laws to keep our nation safe seems to come at a cost. Well acted by DiCaprio, Watts, Dench, and Hammer, the subject matter is at times exciting and intriguing, and at other times slow, drawn out and unnecessary. Eastwood is a master of acting and of putting acting to film. Every element is calculated, every scene is utterly detailed, the lines of fact and fiction blurred.

I am sure there will be award buzz for DiCaprio and Dench in the upcoming couple of months. With Eastwood at the helm and the high caliber of acting talent, J. Edgar is both brilliant to watch and arduous to sit through.

WORTH: Rental

Inception

Is It All In The Mind?

[Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy]

RANT: Today was both a annoying and endearing trip to the theater. My seat back was banged about several times during the film when people got to go to the bathroom, come back, go to the bathroom again, and come back again. Then the three of them left before the end of the movie anyway. Of course, another couple of people snuck in to those same seats, banging my seat on their way, then proceeded to blurt out some crazy nonsense, seemingly tackling the seat back on the way out and left. The worse part was that the most crucial line of dialogue in the film was missed because of the couple. On the flip side was the quality of the film and the line of geese that crossed in front of my car as I left the parking lot.

SYNOPSIS: In a world such as ours, the technology exists for people to invade dreamscapes. Once there, ideas can be extracted and, on the rare occasion, planted.

Christopher Nolan, the architect and visionary of "Memento", "Batman Begins", "The Prestige" and "The Dark Knight" comes back to the screen with the much anticipated Leonardo DiCaprio effort "Inception". And what a effort it is!

I could talk about the acting all day, but the real star of this film is the film. Every sequence is shot as beautifully as if it were a dream. The script adds such complexities with every layer and with every moment of celluloid running behind of the projector's lens. This film was written and directed more as craft than as a high budget movie. But for the audience, this film delivers on all levels, dreamscapes and reality alike.

It is hard to describe the film without giving much of the plot away. Leo DiCaprio plays Cobb, person with the special ability to enter a person's dreamscape to extract the secrets that the mind' subconscious locks away. Originally an 'architect' of the dreamscape, Cobb is forced to change his role due to a personal incident in his past. Offered an opportunity to return to his family by Ken Watanabe's Saito, Cobb assembles a team including a new 'architect', Ellen Page's Ariadne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Arthur, a 'forger' named Eames played by Tom Hardy, and Dileep Rao's Yusuf providing the compounds to keep them all down the rabbit hole..

The visuals that the architect Ariadne (and Nolan) create are stunning. It serves to propel the story, evolving and unraveling. The story has many slower sequences, but you never get tired of it. As the story's tapestry is woven longer and tighter, the audience starts to lose itself in it. Eventually, even we cannot decipher what is real and what is not. I wish I could lay it all out for you, but I know that being able to see the threads for yourself will be rewarding.

Worth: Friday Night & DVD

I am also trying out a new rating system shown below based on reader reaction to my somewhat complex monetary rating scale. I will give both ratings and see what kind of reaction I muster. A movie can receive up to 5 popcorn buckets. Why popcorn buckets? Because I am a slave to the thousand + calorie delight! Enjoy!