Leonardo DiCaprio - (Please Read First Post Prior to Posting)

[katchitup]

Some more negative reviews sadly...seems the critics are pretty split on this Well at least so far all the tweeters/viewers have loved it...Excited to see the other reviews from EW,People, and other big ones; hopes to see more positive coming in the reviews days ahead..

Review: Luhrmann's 'Great Gatsby' is okay and nothing more

http://www.hitfix.co...nd-nothing-more

Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby greeted with mixed reviews in the US

http://www.telegraph...-in-the-US.html

--------------------

Positive review from The Hollywood Reporter:

The Bottom LineA hugely elaborate, well cast adaptation of an American classic that will provoke every possible reaction.

http://www.hollywood...y/review/451988

[Pami]

We should never consider only the opinion of critics, there will always be those who will against the current...unfortunately.

On Rotten Tomatoes says that 98% of audience wants to see the movie and that says a lot to me.

Tks for the articles Kat!

Tks for the pics MakeitCount, Lua,Princess!

[Pami]

"For its first two thirds, Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” is busy busy busy with nary a minute to avoid an onslaught of stylized metaphors. People keep asking me Is it like “Moulin Rouge”? Well no, it’s not nearly as unruly because Luhrmann has to stick– more or less- to the F. Scott Fitzgerald text. He has a structure and a story and at some point he has to get with the program. And he does. The last third of his Gatsby is one of the most beautiful, moving films I’ve ever seen. And the first two thirds? They are a joyride through the director’s wild imagination.

DiCaprio is the wild card here. After playing Hoover, and Hughes, and several patrician characters, I wondered if he could differentiate among all these similar voices. But Gatsby is more like a version of Frank Abagnale the pretender from “Catch Me If You Can.” Gatsby is a dreamer, he’s obsessed with Daisy, he’s unrealistic about his goals.

DiCaprio is an oddity in the film business. He’s the defacto leader of his generation of actors. He’s not a theater actor; he’s a movie star. But he gets lots of kudos. At 38, he gets Oscar nominations but no Oscar. His Gatsby probably won’t get him that Oscar. but he’ll get close. He begins as a ghost, to Daisy, to us. But as he gets fleshed out, this Gatsby has a lot of pathos. He’s doomed. We know it, he doesn’t. And I think DiCaprio can be very proud of this performance."

http://www.showbiz41...y-like-its-1922

[FashionDream]

Thanks for the updates. Loved the showbiz article.

[SweetGaby]

Baz movies always have mixed reviews, even Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet arent unanimity... I want to see how the audience will respond to it. To me this movie's goal is not to be a critic or a award season favorite, is to please the audience and I hope it happens!

[oxford25]

'The Great Gatsby' review: A good 'Gatsby,' but a great DiCaprio

The good thing about this review as the source 'newsday' is one of the review sites that have their reviews repeated in local papers where there is no local film critic, so it gets more exposure them some reviews to general public

There's a lot to like about "The Great Gatsby," Baz Luhrmann's flashy, messy, manic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel. That slim but thematically tricky little volume remains a captivating riddle, which may be why no filmmaker has created the "definitive" version. Luhrmann, the fourth to try, hasn't, either -- there's a lot to dislike here as well -- but his is easily the most entertaining "Gatsby" yet.

It's a product of its time, as were the others: a 1926 silent, a 1949 noir and a gauzy 1974 romance starring hunk-of-the-moment Robert Redford as the mysterious Long Island millionaire Jay Gatsby. This version is a postmodern pastiche: Flappers gyrate to Jay-Z, Gatsby's Gold Coast mansion looks like a Disneyland castle and Jazz Age New York has more candy-colored costumes and confetti than a Katy Perry concert. (Make that Madonna; Luhrmann's vision of pop spectacle sometimes recalls the 1980s more than the 1920s or 2010s.)

The anachronisms hammer home an obvious point -- 'twas ever thus! -- which would get tiresome if not for some outstanding performances. Carey Mulligan is picture perfect as Gatsby's aristocratic beloved, Daisy Fay Buchanan, but the character's vibrancy has been written away; now she's just sad, sad, sad. Tobey Maguire, as Nick Carraway, strikes a nice blend of passivity and outrage, while Joel Edgerton, as Daisy's husband, Tom, is a revelation, bringing out the nobility in this story's go-to villain. Crucial roles, such as the jet-setting Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki) and the ill-used Myrtle Wilson (Isla Fisher), are reduced to near-cameos.

As for Leonardo DiCaprio, he is now the Gatsby to beat. Despite a borderline comedic entrance -- haloed by fireworks and accompanied by Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" -- DiCaprio nails this maddeningly enigmatic character. He's as tough as Alan Ladd in '49, as suave as Redford in '74, but also vulnerable, touching, funny, a faker, a human. You hear it all in Gatsby's favorite phrase, "old sport," a verbal tic that stumped other actors. It's a tremendous, hard-won performance.

DiCaprio helps save the movie from its excesses and missteps, particularly a narration that not only redundantly describes the visuals but obscures them in the form of floating words. Luhrmann hasn't solved the riddle of "Gatsby," but it's an audacious and worthy attempt.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/the-great-gatsby-review-a-good-gatsby-but-a-great-dicaprio-1.5207150

[FashionDream]

Awwww Leo always brings his A game, loved the parts you bolded! Thanks Oxford for the article!

[Pami]

'The Great Gatsby' review: A good 'Gatsby,' but a great DiCaprio

The good thing about this review as the source 'newsday' is one of the review sites that have their reviews repeated in local papers where there is no local film critic, so it gets more exposure them some reviews to general public

There's a lot to like about "The Great Gatsby," Baz Luhrmann's flashy, messy, manic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel. That slim but thematically tricky little volume remains a captivating riddle, which may be why no filmmaker has created the "definitive" version. Luhrmann, the fourth to try, hasn't, either -- there's a lot to dislike here as well -- but his is easily the most entertaining "Gatsby" yet.

It's a product of its time, as were the others: a 1926 silent, a 1949 noir and a gauzy 1974 romance starring hunk-of-the-moment Robert Redford as the mysterious Long Island millionaire Jay Gatsby. This version is a postmodern pastiche: Flappers gyrate to Jay-Z, Gatsby's Gold Coast mansion looks like a Disneyland castle and Jazz Age New York has more candy-colored costumes and confetti than a Katy Perry concert. (Make that Madonna; Luhrmann's vision of pop spectacle sometimes recalls the 1980s more than the 1920s or 2010s.)

The anachronisms hammer home an obvious point -- 'twas ever thus! -- which would get tiresome if not for some outstanding performances. Carey Mulligan is picture perfect as Gatsby's aristocratic beloved, Daisy Fay Buchanan, but the character's vibrancy has been written away; now she's just sad, sad, sad. Tobey Maguire, as Nick Carraway, strikes a nice blend of passivity and outrage, while Joel Edgerton, as Daisy's husband, Tom, is a revelation, bringing out the nobility in this story's go-to villain. Crucial roles, such as the jet-setting Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki) and the ill-used Myrtle Wilson (Isla Fisher), are reduced to near-cameos.

As for Leonardo DiCaprio, he is now the Gatsby to beat. Despite a borderline comedic entrance -- haloed by fireworks and accompanied by Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" -- DiCaprio nails this maddeningly enigmatic character. He's as tough as Alan Ladd in '49, as suave as Redford in '74, but also vulnerable, touching, funny, a faker, a human. You hear it all in Gatsby's favorite phrase, "old sport," a verbal tic that stumped other actors. It's a tremendous, hard-won performance.

DiCaprio helps save the movie from its excesses and missteps, particularly a narration that not only redundantly describes the visuals but obscures them in the form of floating words. Luhrmann hasn't solved the riddle of "Gatsby," but it's an audacious and worthy attempt.

http://www.newsday.c...aprio-1.5207150

[Pami]

Yeah...nice review too....

http://www.screendai...&contentID=1479

DiCaprio fares far better as Gatsby, a poignant figure laid low by his desire to acquire enough riches to win back his true love. It’s been 17 years since DiCaprio appeared in Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, but you can see much of the last decade of his career in his portrayal of Gatsby: the thwarted ambition of Howard Hughes from The Aviator, the dark intensity of Teddy Daniels in Shutter Island, and the romantic anguish of Dom Cobb from Inception.

Of late, DiCaprio seems drawn to roles where he plays dashing, confident, worldly men who cannot overcome some fatal flaw that threatens to undo everything they’ve accomplished. His Gatsby is very much cut from the same cloth, and while it’s largely affecting — now well into his thirties, he can better utilise his still-boyish face to wring great pathos — it’s also a touch familiar at this point.

[katchitup]

LOVE leo getting positive reviews at least...and while I'm a little upset so far the reviews haven't been to favorable, at the very least the crowds and movie going audiances who have seen it have liked it!! (I know I loved Moulin Rouge and R&J even though those reviews were sketchy too)

Also...what is this mag? Fake, or special issue, or what?

h. jon benjamin ?@HJBenjamin 7h

New issue of dicaprio magazine OUT!!!

[katchitup]

New Gatsby clips, Leo comments etc.

Jay Z Talks Musical Inspiration Behind 'Gatsby'

[oxford25]

Thanks to all for the Gatsby reviews , articles, vids

Sweet Gaby

I share the sentiments you expressed below ,as they remind me of what happened years ago when Titanic with Leo was about to be released.

I want to see how the audience will respond to it. To me this movie's goal is not to be a critic or a award season favorite, is to please the audience and I hope it happens

[FashionDream]

Never heard of that magazine either lol. Not sure what the deal is, either way he looks great.

[oxford25]

Who better to play Jay Gatsby than Leonardo DiCaprio, a teen sitcom star who turned A-lister ?

Living the American dream

NEW YORK — Like Jay Gatsby, Leonardo DiCaprio knows a thing or two about reinventing himself.

DiCaprio made the transition from Oscar-nominated teen in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape to young adult Titanic star with a blink of his baby-blue eyes.

Later on, he managed to position himself as a 21st century A-list power player who could get films made by saying yes.

However, it took more than a nod of approval from DiCaprio to get the green light for Baz Luhrmann’s ambitious makeover of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby.

DiCaprio’s involvement helped, but Luhrmann had to shoot the movie in his native land of Australia to reap some cost-saving benefits from the country’s cinema incentive program.

Based on the results, DiCaprio said they were thrilled that they did a movie that’s as relevant now as the book was when it was first published in the early 1920s.

“I think we can all relate to the dreamer in Gatsby,” said the 38-year-old, relaxing at a refurbished suite in the Plaza Hotel. “He’s a character who created himself according to his own imagination and dreams, and he’s lifted himself from his bootstraps … and created this image.”

Opening May 10, the latest version of Gatsby is still set in 1920s New York but shot in state-of-the-art 3D. And the film features DiCaprio as a less mysterious Gatsby who becomes embroiled in the melodramatic lives of the upper class after re-connecting with the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan).

Tobey Maguire co-stars as Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story and the observer of the reckless affairs surrounding him.

Joel Edgerton plays Daisy’s philandering husband Tom while Isla Fisher portrays the tragic Myrtle Wilson.

Six film and TV versions of The Great Gatsby came before the Luhrmann production; the most famous starred Robert Redford as Gatsby in the 1974 movie.

That was only one of the reasons DiCaprio was initially hesitant about taking on the iconic part.

“For me, this is American Shakespeare,” he said. “And this is one of the most celebrated novels of all time.”

Certainly, he was comforted by the fact that he was collaborating again with his friend Luhrmann, whose hyper-real post-modern Gatsby is not as camp as Strictly Ballroom or as song-oriented as Moulin Rouge! Yet it was just as challenging.

“To venture into a project of this magnitude took a core unit of trust for me to feel comfortable and it took somebody I knew for 20 years,” said DiCaprio who played Romeo in Luhrmann’s stylized Romeo + Juliet.

In fact, Luhrmann had DiCaprio by his side as he developed the production from a maybe to a might and finally to a daring project with multiple collaborators. “We were a theatre company and, like a theatre company, it was a true collaboration,” Luhrmann said.

Yet the director and leading man knew that adjustments would have to be made to connect the past to the present.

“It’s a truly American story,” said DiCaprio. “Here is this emerging democracy that is America in the 1920s and (Gatsby) wants to emulate a Rockefeller but creates his wealth in the underworld.”

Familiar today are Luhrmann’s sub-themes depicting a financial system teetering on the brink of collapse as a party-mad subculture immerses itself in excess.

“That’s why it’s not just a (period) novel,” DiCaprio said. “Fitzgerald was very much commenting on society and human nature and the great pursuit of wealth, and it’s timeless.”

That was hardly DiCaprio’s perception when he first read the novel as a 14-year-old. He said at the time he thought of it as a yarn about a hopeless romantic lost in love.

Back in those junior high days, DiCaprio was auditioning for TV commercials, then soon managed to get his first gig on the short-lived TV show Parenthood. It led to more TV appearances, including memorable guest spots on the highly rated Roseanne and Growing Pains.

DiCaprio made his film debut in 1992 opposite Robert De Niro in This Boy’s Life, which was the beginning of an incredible movie career.

He said he never expected that a Gatsby movie would be his future, especially one filmed in Australia.

“What was amazing about shooting in Australia, and recreating this whole world, was the incredible enthusiasm of all the people there,” said DiCaprio. “I think it infused us with this great energy.

[email protected]

© Copyright © The Ottawa Citizen

[daisy+gatsby]

Oxford, I agree with everything you said! I liked your Titanic story and mom + leo fan's advice, so sweet. I read somewhere today that "movie critics seem to be taking unvarnished glee in savaging the film's blinged-out depictions of Jazz Age excess." and i believe this is true, critics have been waiting to tear Gatsby apart since it was announced - a lot of reviewers have a real hatred of Baz's style, which saddens me.

I'm not going to let the negativity stop my excitement for the movie at all!

[calibi]

[oxford25]

Gaby

Agree with your comments below (Y) (Y)

I read somewhere today that "movie critics seem to be taking unvarnished glee in savaging the film's blinged-out depictions of Jazz Age excess." and i believe this is true, critics have been waiting to tear Gatsby apart since it was announced - a lot of reviewers have a real hatred of Baz's style, which saddens me.

I'm not going to let the negativity stop my excitement for the movie at all!

[calibi]

http://youtu.be/xHudO2oaflU

[oxford25]

Possible NY sighting

DRJ ‏@davejerg 11m

Wife told me she's sitting next to Leonardo Dicaprio at dinner in NYC, and I got a boner. Women stand no chance.