The Good Gatsby

Baz Lurhmann has given the cinema going public some great films in the last decade or so. Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and even Moulin Rouge have all married his trademark style and memorable soundtracks with stories of great loves and losses. Now correct me if I’m wrong but Baz Lurhmann adapting The Great Gatsby, one of the greatest stories of love, loss and hope around, seemed like a match made in heaven. But sadly this film’s treacherous climb to those pearly gates stumbled and fell somewhere along the way.

 

 

I think it would be redundant in any critique of this movie to slate it for not rigidly sticking to the book’s plot, as amazing as the book may be, watching something adapted for the big screen means that a director has taken a great story and put their own stamp on it. A mundane blow by blow retelling of the Great Gatsby would have been uninspired and altogether disappointing. I’m not a purist, if the film maintains its main theme and message, which made the Gatsby so great; then by all means change away. Within saying that amid all the amazing sets, brilliant costumes and perfect performances, Lurhmann’s take on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s seminal classic seems to have lost its heart on the dance floor among the glittering confetti and spilled bathtub gin.

Telling the tale of rich people and rich people’s woes, it all becomes a bit “first world problems”. The films saving grace in this respective is in the form of Leonardo DiCaprio. One of many men to fill in the shoes of Jay Gatsby, his performance is understated, complex, vulnerable and just the perfect dash of crazy.  Gatsby is not an easy character to portray but DiCaprio makes it look effortless, even in a pink suit.  Tobey Maguire lets the side down with a very banal and bland turn as the story narrator Nick Carraway but that could be more to do with the script and less to do with the man himself.

Another hit and miss aspect of The Great Gatsby is the soundtrack. Lurhmann in the past has had a great knack of mixing the old with the new. Anyone just has to give a listen to the Romeo + Juliet or even the Moulin Rouge soundtrack to know that but here it just doesn’t work. I admire him for the attempt but it fails due to the obscurity of some of the songs. Crazy in Love is re worked brilliantly and there is a nice touch of Jay-Z along the way but when it came to the blow out party scenes, the music sat jarringly with the film as opposed to complementing it.

Feeling like it’s fallen off the back of the Baz Lurhmann automated production line, The Great Gatsby has too many similarites with his previous works.  Its bookend scenes nearly lifted directly from Moulin Rouge. While visually stunning, it resonates a hollow centre, much like many of its characters. But if you’re a fan of the book, or even a fan of DiCaprio then it might be worth your time. The Great Gatsby, no, but the Good Gatsby, maybe.

 

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Maniac on the dancefloor

Horror remakes normally lack in the fresh meat stakes. They seem to either be blow by blow retellings with better FX or uninspired gore fests with under developed characters and unoriginal ideas.  Maniac is an interesting case as although it may be laden with fake blood and horror clichés it also has inspired performances and interesting directorial decisions.

 

 

In the 1980’s Maniac became a cult classic, telling the story of a man who falls in love, only he also happens to be obsessed with murdering women and using them to complete his mannequin collection through the delightful process of scalping.  Although 2013’s Maniac has slight changes to the script, the foundations of the film remain the same, there are still lots of mannequins and yes you guessed it, lots of scalping. Elijah Wood cast in the role of Frank, the films maniac, is an inspired choice. Yeah we have seen him play against character before, see Sin City, but he had no easy feat getting this complex psycho across. His demeanour and look add depth to the idea of this on-going internal struggle, flashing from angel to devil in two seconds flat. The film is shot in the POV of Frank, so considering that Mr. Wood’s face is on screen for all of about ten minutes, he still manages through brilliant off camera dialogue to convey a truly horrifying young man. Although the camera shots may annoy along the way, it helps to cement this feeling of claustrophobia and uncomfortable closeness in the viewer to a majorly deranged person. A breath of fresh air and a great directorial choice from Franck Khalfoun, whose previous outings are all trashy straight to DVD slashers. If you have seen P2 or Switchblade Romance please get in touch, you may need professional help.

The story itself is a little under developed and a tad on the deja vu side of things. There’s Bates inspired mother issues and of course the obligatory migraines. It would have been helped by a little less of the gore and a little more of a story. Saying that, the gore is great. It might not have meant to be on the funny side of things but a little chuckle did escape this film fryer-upper during some of the more ludicrous moments of the bloodbath.

You could do worse than watch Maniac; it’s a neat little package that doesn’t over stay its welcome, wrapped up in 89 minutes. If you like actors playing against typecasting and a soundtrack drenched in perfectly subtle 80’s synths then this just might be a surprise success for you. If you don’t, then just don’t bother. That other film about mannequins with Andrew McCarthy is pretty good too. Give that one a watch. Just don’t mix them up.

 

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