The Great Gatsby (2013)

Many years ago, a light and frothy Mia Farrow was Miss Daisy Buchanan to Robert Redford’s Jay Gatsby.  I have waited close to a year and a half to see this remake of what I consider to be one of the better versions of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic about the lives of the veddy, veddy rich and the desire to possess what was never theirs in the first place.  Carey Mulligan and Leonardo diCaprio are the star-crossed/class-defined lovers.  The sets, the narration, the music (which is a combination of classic 20’s jazz and the perfectly matched remixes of hip-hop, pop, and crying ballads) and the supporting cast are blended in a nouveau flapper fresco that invokes another time.  It rings in the desperation of crawling out of the craziness that was the end of the Flapper Age and the beginning of the Great Depression.  Yes, folks, this is what excess looks like and the lunacy of love.  Baz Luhrman has created a world just as fantastic as Long Island, the Hamptons, and Manhattan, but did it in New South Wales.  Amazing costumes, make-up, and the cars…yikes…everything is perfect and follows the book to a “T”.   Supporting cast is excellent…if nothing else, it will get nominated for costumes, but I think it’ll take many more of the awards.  Rating:  3.5 stars and the piercing “Eyes of God” looking down upon us all.