I had a busy and fun weekend with a friend of mine this past weekend (I wrote this May 20th). Over the weekend I; saw the Premier of Star Trek: Into Darkness (it was Amazing), test drove some exotic sports cars, and went to see The Great Gatsby in 3D. I may share some car pics with you, and I would love to tell you all about Star Trek, but that would include spoilers. So, what I am going to do is give my accolades to the Great Gatsby.
This movie certainly lives up to its name, in a word, it was great! The air of this movie is the same inspiration for this very blog that you hopefully read often. Gatsby takes place in the roaring 20’s jazz age. It was a time when Men knew how to look, and how to act (save a few of these characters). For the movie the costume designers teamed up with Brooks Brothers, Prada, and Tiffany & Co. Three names who have been at the forefront of fashion design for a long time. The jewelry and clothing were featured prominently with nice lingering close-ups. It all helped to enrich the feel of 1920’s high society with all of its pomp and circumstance.
The film is so visually appealing, being directed by Baz Lurhman . His films include; Romeo and Juliet, which also stars Leonardo Dicaprio, Moulin Rouge, which is one of my favorite films, 
and Australia. The pace and rhythm of this movie were unmistakably his, and he excells with those captivating visual masterpieces. I saw this one in 3D which did a great job to enrich the cinematography and environment of the movie; it really drew you in, rather than blasted you in the face with the 3D effect.
Now a director is only as good as his cast, and he has a great leading cast in Gatsby. Leonardo Dicaprio is cast as title character J. Gatsby; I have grown to be a big fan of his movies. Carey Mulligan is Gatsby’s love interest Daisy, and her husband Tom Buchanan is played by Joel Edgerton. In the film, the story is told by fictional author Nick Carraway played by Tobey Maguire. All of them have done an impeccable job portraying their respective characters. This film made it very easy to get lost in their story and forget about the world around me for a while. The movie is pulled from the 1925 novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
These actors were not the only stars of the film, as much as they made the story come alive, it was the beautiful cars transported us into their world. J Gatsby drove an absolutely breath-taking 1929 Dusenberg model J custom roadster in bright yellow. Some of the others include a 1930 Buick, 1933 Auburn as well as a few Packards and a model A Ford.
If you want to get a feel for one of the the themes that How to be Swell was conceived on, then see this movie. If you want to be entertained and escape for a while, then the job this film does with that, is swell….Old Sport.
Related articles
- A Visual Twist on a Twenties Classic: Great Gatsby Movie Review (bransonblazer.org)
- The Great Gatsby (2013) Review (brianpnyc12.wordpress.com)
- Culture/Film: The Great Gatsby Review (bertainprogress.wordpress.com)
How to be Swell 
Good review. The novel will probably forever, and always will be considered unfilmable, no matter how hard this movie tries to make it work.
Thanks for the comment! I agree the old cliche’ still holds true; the book is better than the movie. In my opinion this latest translation has given the book the most justice, and hopefully inspire more people to pick it up and read it.
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This movie was amazing. I just loved it, and so did my mom (who had read the book beforehand). I have to agree that it glorified drinking, smoking, and sex. But you have to remember that this movie is set in the Roaring 20’s. This is a time when all the rules about marriage got looser. When it comes to drinking, this is the time of Probation, when alcohol was, for the majority, banned. Since this movie was based on the rich New York party crowd I’m the 1920’s, this movie was very accurate. Language wise, there is quite a few d**n’s and some h*lls but nothing more than that. There is some scenes that imply people are having affairs but nothing more than their shoulders up shown. For violence, a man beats his wife and another thing happens that I won’t share because of spoilers. But nothing to intense. People drink and smoke (cigars, cigarettes) at the parties and some are shown to be drunk. This movie is very thought provoking and is so much more than a romance. You will leave the theater thinking, “What just happened.” You get completely sucked into the movie and the ending leave you bewildered.