The Great Gatsby (2013 film)

I have watched Romeo + Juliet. Amazing how having some really shiny firearms, De Caprio, Danes and Postlethwaite makes Shakespeare worth seeing. Much better than Zefferelli's version imho.

Style: Looks fucking fantastic, omg costume/scenery porn.

Casting: Isla Fisher seems slightly off for Myrtle, but ok. Leo is too old for Gatsby, but ok. Tom seems appropriately dickish, and I'm hopeful about Carey Mulligan. Tobey Maguire... ugh. I do not like him at all, I always see Tobey Maguire, not character. But I loathe Nick, so maybe that will work.

Music: No idea, but the trailer rocked.

Source material: A solid meh. Good writing, but I don't like the book. Not due to high school (I liked about half of my high school books) but because... gah. Gatsby bothers me for two reasons.

One is the unending depressing-ness. It is definitely a book about not getting what you want, about valuing the wrong things, about futility and apathy and how the Jazz Age was horrible (which, hey, in many ways it was, but in Gatsby you never see the good stuff, just the bad). I don't like those style of books, though I recognize their value. Same problem with Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, and A Song of Ice and Fire.

The second reason is all the characters feel sorta flat to me, but especially the female characters. And Nick is an annoying narrator, he doesn't really do anything useful, which is frustrating.

edited 6th May '13 9:27:13 PM by wisewillow

Personally I thought the guns were a perfect metaphor for that movie - beautiful machines underneath with a lot of ugly and unnecessary detailing bolted onto them.

For your delectation.

edited 7th May '13 12:20:44 PM by Achaemenid

...they have a "guns in movies" wiki...

wut.

The RT rating has gone slightly up, but it's still being classified as Rotten. Half of me is dismayed, and half of me is not the least bit surprised.

Of course they have a guns in movies wiki, silly.

They have a cars in movies wiki,

http://www.imcdb.org/

a planes in movies wiki,

http://www.impdb.org/index.php?title=The_Internet_Movie_Plane_Database

a computers in movies database

http://www.starringthecomputer.com/

and so on and so forth.

...

You know what, I shouldn't be surprised by this discovery.

I read a couple reviews, but at this point, I think I'm just gonna try to ignore the critical response until I've actually seen the movie. What I usually do anyway—go to see a movie, form my opinion, then look up its RT rating.

The Billboard charts proper seemed to not have updated yet, but according to this article, might land at #2 soon.

While it probably won't nab that #1, the Billboard 200's top spot tends to be more elusive. So basically, if projections are right, the soundtrack will be a success.

That's good to hear. Most of the soundtrack is pretty decent.

At the moment, this is looking to have the highest RT rating of any Gatsby adaptation. That may not be saying much, but it's still nice.

EDIT: And we have a consensus!

edited 9th May '13 2:40:00 PM by Mort08

The consensus there seems to sum up the complaints I've been seeing. From the sounds of it, most of the critics seem to think the sheer amount of work that went into making the parties, booze, and women look awesome resulted in a clear case of Broken Aesop and Do Not Do This Cool Thing.

edited 9th May '13 3:59:58 PM by comicwriter

This is kind of relevant. And funny. But mostly funny.

Oh gosh the peanut butter.

edited 10th May '13 10:36:46 AM by Tuckerscreator

So the soundtrack is pretty much set for #2 when the charts updates next Thursday. However, it has stayed in #1 on iTunes for a couple of days, so there's a slim chance it might go #1 next week if nothing else major releases, but I'm predicting Top 5.

Although it would be grimly amusing if the movie flops and the soundtrack exceeds expectations. Scratch that, it looks like it's having a good opening, but it can always take a second week dip.

Also, right now, "Young and Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey is at #12 at iTunes. If it cracks the Top 10, it might mean a mainstream break for her.

Here's the music video, by the way:

I also want to see "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)" see good pop radio impact. It'd make a zesty summer anthem.

By the way, marketing for the movie seems to have its bearings, at least from what I see from the TV spots and the You Tube commercials.

edited 12th May '13 6:54:58 PM by chihuahua0

That'd be a little ironic, seeing as she's planning to stop doing music.

I too want to see "A Little Party" become popular. Out of all the pop/jazz mashup numbers, I think it's the one that's the most comfortable mixing the styles, while some of the others sound like the artists were forced to put the jazz in there at gunpoint (looking at you, will.i.am.).

So has anyone here seen the movie itself yet? I was hoping to this weekend, but my mom had to go out of town on short notice and I didn't get the chance.

EDIT: And speaking of that song, get a load of what I found;

edited 13th May '13 12:09:36 AM by Mort08

I'm thinking of seeing the movie soon. Even though critic reception is lukewarm, I'm still curious to see how it turns out.

So right now, I'm viewing the US iTunes charts within the actual application, which either reflects real-time or hourly sales rates.

"Young and Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey is at #9, for the Deluxe Edition song. It places #75 for the regular edition song and #99 for the DH Orchestral version. Similarly, "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody" is at #29.

I wish the albums didn't have most of the songs marked "Album Only", as I think that might help singles song sale a little more for them. I don't really get the practice.

Double post, since I'm talking about the movie for once.

It did well this weekend. Iron Man 3 beat it out from the #1 spot, but The Great Gatsby is going to do better than Moulin Rouge.

What on earth is that song from the second trailer? It plays during the twerking jazz burlesque dancers and goes "oooohhhhh oooooh ooooooo woooooooooh". I've been going through the soundtrack and haven't found it.

EDIT: Found it! Tumblr is a helpful place. It was Bedroom Hymns, by Florence and the Machine. I listened to almost the entire Gatsby OST, and yet this was the only song I actually liked. And it was only in the trailer. *facepalm*

edited 16th May '13 5:03:53 PM by wisewillow

It's fortunate Florence + the Machine got to record "Over the Love" for the soundtrack.

By the way, the regular version of Ceremonials is $5 on Amazon right now, although you can still buy the deluxe edition tracks (like "Bedroom Hymns") and still save on money.

Heh.◊

edited 16th May '13 11:41:27 PM by Mort08

Could we add the trope Dying Alone for this movie, on your opinion ?

( Reminds me, Citizen Kane, a bit.. )

He wasn't quite alone. The guy who killed him was there, too.

Gatsby turned out alright in the end.

I liked this movie. I was very pleased with this. It's not the slightest bit subtle, but I think this worked.

edited 17th May '13 2:54:11 PM by TheBatPencil

Yeah. But, there is a phrase : " Everybody who comes at his party wasn't here for his funeral..." It's true that he is not alone, there is Nick Carraway. But it could have a great funeral, instead, as Citizen Kane, there is just one or two people.

"Bang Bang" got a video.

Fairly boring until he gets to the tap dancing bit. Not very creative in terms of camerawork. The song itself has grown on me somewhat, but only because "100$ Bills" replaced it as the worst track on the album.

Anyone else find it a little weird that this has more or less become a thread about the soundtrack?

edited 20th May '13 7:43:35 PM by Mort08