"I filmed myself jerking off on a copy of The Great Gatsby and decided to advertise it as a movie staring Leonardo DiCaprio" - Baz Luhrmann on the making of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby should have been awful. Luhrmann has proven once again to be a terrible director. Anyone who has seen Romeo + Juliet or Moulin Rouge! instantly knows what Luhrmann's style is, and it really isn't working out for him because it makes his films look terrible. The Great Gatsby is filled with terrible CGI and green screening that is so embarrassing for such a big budget film. You can tell that this is not taking the place in the 1920's. Last I check a film…

Young Baz Luhrmann: "Hey mom! Look what I found in the dumpster: it's some old book!"

Mom Luhrmann: "Honey, put that thing back where you found it and get back to filming me throwing glitter at your father."

Young Baz: "But ma! It's got some superficial romance and a melodramatic tragedy of an ending and some subtle political commentary that I can wash over if not ignore completely!"

Mom: "Well, okay honey, I'll let you read it just this one time. But only if you promise me you'll film it like a musical and yet not make it quite a musical, leaving your audience constantly expecting someone to burst into song. Oh, and make sure your camera is constantly moving…

A 'Top of the Pops' period-piece whose hyper-style of fluorescent colours and cartoon bourgeois attempt to mask any would-be depth beyond the aesthetic (why do rap tracks blare over a party set in the 1920s? It is bizarre choice of music and completely out of place).

Luhrmann tries to place a modern lure on top of the fundamentals of the book (character intrigue, potent drama) but his style of bright colours, odd music and heavy CGI choke the film instead of complementing it. Motivations of the characters are sensed not to spawn from themselves but because the script has a task for them to operate, this is best shown through Daisy who functions as the vulnerable object of desire and…

Who is this Gatsby?
-Nick Carraway

F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, is a tale of idealism, excess, lack of self-restraint, decadence and resistance to change. Baz Luhrmann's 2013 film adaptation correctly explores those themes, but they also describe the film's production. Every single moment of the film is bigger then life and full of spectacle resulting in an artificial feeling that I couldn't shake off during most of the film.

Just to be clear I actually like most of Luhrmann's films. I love Moulin Rouge! and inexplicably, to the confusion of many, also like Australia. There's a contributing factor to both those films that probably effected my judgment of them, but it just goes to show I…

I'm currently studying for an MA in modern literature, and one of my greatest literary shames is that I don't really *get* the popularity of The Great Gatsby. Fair dooze, I read it as a teen and have never really wanted to revisit so maybe all the commentary was lost on me at the time, but Gatsby left me cold.

However, like most people, I was excited to see Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of the jazz age and, like most people, my feelings are mixed.

I'm a huge Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet fan but Luhrmann's editing style is starting to get tiring, sometimes I wish he would slow things down so we can get a proper look at all…

The Great Gatsby was not as great as I had hoped. In fact, I found it to be impoverished and wearisome. Luhrman attempts to recreate Fitzgerald's novelization in a contemporary light but ultimately fails to produce a film that is either powerful or significant. He makes use of terrific special effects as well as set/costume design but he is unable to compensate for his own poor sense of guidance. Surprisingly enough, I found the modernized re-imagining of the The Great Gatsby to be fine. The hip/hop soundtrack was able to capture my attention quite quickly and the use of fluorescent colours illustrated the film's initial tone accurately. I was skeptical of the cast, mostly because I can't stand to watch…