Review of The Great Gatsby (2013) by Buck S — 16 May 2016

The Great Gatsby is a film that I have wanted to see for a good amount of time. As an enthusiast of the book, I crave for something that is remotely close to F Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece. Unfortunately the 2013 adaptation of this great American literary achievement doesn't even come remotely close.

We follow Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), a young and stupid adult that wishes to make a go at the booming stock market of the 1920's. Times are good for America and they are great for the mysterious Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) that lives right next door to Carraway. Gatsby throws epic parties at his sprawling east coast mansion on a regular basis, but for what reason? We learn as the film unfolds.

First off, Jay-Z was an awful choice for the score and soundtrack of this film. While I enjoy some of his work, I believe that the things he made for this film were very out of place. I also saw some of his influence in the plot, as well as the overall stylization. This film exhibits racial equality, electronic score, and even dubstep, none of which have anything to do with the 1920's. While I am a big fan of dubstep and a firm supporter of civil rights, none of these things existed in the 20's. The novel upon which this film is based serves as a very strong piece of the period from which it came. This film isn't just an adaptation; it is a full-on re-imagining. I believe it is choices like this that serve as Gatsby's greatest weaknesses. Eliminating the elements that make the book strong to this very day is just not a smart move.

Where Gatsby suffers in authenticity and identity, it strives in acting. I believe this film was well cast and very well acted. I have to give my props to DiCaprio and Joel Edgerton for especially strong performances. I genuinely sympathized with Gatsby and I genuinely hated Tom Buchanan. I am usually skeptical of all Tobey Maguire performances, but I was not annoyed with him this time around (no repeats of Spider Man 3). I loved Carrey Mulligan as Daisy but I believe this performance is very much a step down from Drive (2011).

As far as direction goes, I feel that Baz Luhrmann did a relatively bad job of picking a direction for this movie to go. This film wants to be so many different things at once it's hard to really understand the big picture. The film's pretty look is welcome and exciting, but can be very intense and very obnoxious. Too much work was put into the craziness of Gatsby's parties and not enough time was put into a real identity of the film's plot and intentions.

Overall I think The Great Gatsby could have been much better than it is. So many writers and directors have attempted to make a descent film about this great novel and all have failed. I can't wait for the next attempt in twenty years. I hope Jay-Z doesn't write the score for that one.