First Trailer for Wolf of Wall Street

 

The first trailer for Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street debuted this morning and it looks like Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have another hit on their hands. Along with Mr. Dicaprio, the film stars Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey and Jean Dujardin.

The Wolf of Wall Street opens on November 13th

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Review: The Great Gatsby

Self-made men like Jay Gatsby have been a fascination of American culture for decades, men like Howard Hughes and Don Draper, men that create veiled versions of themselves available for public consumption. These men raise the ideal of the American dream for all to see. Too often that ideal is so golden that few inspect further to see the pyrite underneath.

During parties Gatsby has a story for every occasion, a drink to offer in both hands and an practiced "old sport" for each party goer. Of the two Gatsbys we see (one private and one public), the private moments captured by Luhrmann offer a stoic man, one with green-tinted regret leering at him in the distance. The house across the water.

Two people live at the residence: Tom Buchanan (gleeful villain, Joel Edgerton), but more importantly to Gatsby, Tom's wife, Daisy (Carey Mulligan).

We are kept at a distance from these characters, the audience views them through the eyes of newcomer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire). The spectacular parties are taken in with Carraway's wide-eyed wonder, but the more time Nick spends around Daisy, Tom and Gatsby, the more cracks appear in the veneer. As each party brings Daisy and Gatsby together, tragedy comes closer to West Egg.

Very rarely have an actor and a role seemed tailor-made for each other. DiCaprio has similarly crafted his own self-image that is equally as polished as Jay Gatsby's. Both men know the practiced smiles and the rapport that you utilize with others while keeping other feelings locked down. Portions of Gatsby fall flat (Daisy never seems like the woman that would inspire a feud), but DiCaprio's embodiment as the titular character never ceases to amaze.

The reason why The Great Gatsby didn't work in the 1974 film starring Robert Redford is because previous filmmakers felt the need to rigidly adhere to the source material. When source material is treated with such reverence, the product feels overly sacred and keeps the audience at a distance. Bringing the story to life is difficult because what grips reader about the book is not the dialogue or Carraway's voiceover, it's Fitzgerald's prose that makes the story and prose isn't adaptable.

To make up for that, a sense of style has to be melded into the story.

Baz Luhrmann has been flogged as an auteur with an overly sweet tooth, yet Luhrmann's choice to create an over-the-top Jazz Age America is an intentional decision. This effort is sure to bring Moulin Rouge! to mind, but it is a shot of energy into a summer that lacks a distinct touch. The glitzy and confetti covered world Gatsby and Daisy live in is a hollow one, one made more heart-breaking by the optimism surrounding them.

***/****

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Muses and Maestros: DiCaprio and Scorsese

This marks the first post in a new series called Muses and Maestros, featuring some of the most talented pairings in modern film. First up, Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese.

The players: Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese
The works: Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island

The most famous actor/director duo that Martin Scorsese will ever be involved in is his partnership with Robert DeNiro. The movie classics that evolved from that relationship will always be untouched. With that said, Scorsese is treading similar waters with Leonardo DiCaprio to great results. The Departed finally netted Scorsese that coveted Best Director trophy and it's hard to argue that DiCaprio's performance isn't a major reason for the film's success.

DiCaprio has gone on to other great work for directors besides Scorsese (Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott), but his highs have rarely reached the same heights that Shutter Island accomplished. Still, the envy of all filmmakers today is a hard goal to attain frequently.

Scorsese recently received accolades for his work on Hugo without DiCaprio, but his films without the former teenaged heart-throb have been few. Excluding documentaries, one would have to go back to 1999's Bringing out the Dead to find a feature without Leonardo DiCaprio in it and the two will pair up again (their fifth time) for The Wolf of Wall Street this year.

Best film: The Departed won Best Picture and it also won Scorsese his only Oscar for Best Director, but few films have captured such pathos as Shutter Island. DiCaprio's turn and Scorsese's direction resulted in a genre effort that vaulted an homage to psychological thrillers into what was my favorite film of 2010.

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Review: Django Grabbed His Gun (Django Unchained)

Eight directorial outings into his filmography, Quentin Tarantino has become his own genre. Riffing on gangster films, Asian cinema, war flicks, and with Django Unchained, the Western. The Western is perhaps the most sacred film to most Americans as its inception unfolded in the U.S. It seems fitting that Tarantino should try to rip the band-aid off of America's great shame in a Western.

With all of that said, all the anxiety punctuated by talk of race is swept aside quickly and efficiently. This is not a dissection of slavery, it is a tale of the lengths one man will go to save his wife. Django (Jamie Foxx, exemplifying the words on Jules Winnfield's wallet) is freed by a German bounty hunter on the hunt for the Brittle Brothers.

Only Django has seen these men's faces and Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) offers him a deal: help him find the brothers and he will help Django find Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). Schultz teaches Django the tools of the trade and he picks it up quickly.

To Django's horror, Schultz informs him that Broomhilda is being by none other than Calvin Candie.

Calvin Candie (a despicably entertaining Leonardo DiCaprio) is the proprietor of Cleopatra Club, a place of refinement, where slaves are forced to beat each other to death or be killed. Candie is a boy who was never told he couldn't have sweets, now, that has led to lurid activities brought to the forefront for his endless amusement. The term schadenfreude may have been invented specifically for him.

If Django is to get her back, he and Schultz will have to avoid the watchful eye of Candie's servant Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson).

Casting has always been a specialty for Tarantino, yet this may be his finest lineup to date. From the great pairings of Foxx/Waltz and DiCaprio/Jackson all the way down to character actors like Don Johnson and Walton Goggins. Everything is aces. There were those who were skeptical of Foxx's casting originally, but he has the charisma to pull this off. Similarly, DiCaprio playing a vicious slave-owner could have resulted in career suicide, yet his devilish turn succeeds.

A film like this could only have been handled by Mr. Tarantino. All of his films involve a knowing wink at the audience and while that worked with revisionist history in Inglourious Basterds, covering race in such a bold manner could raise more viewer's dander. Django Unchained could have very quickly become crass, with such a non-reverent take on a divisive subject, but the riveting dialogue and superb performances from the three leads guarantee entertainment throughout the picture.

Tarantino doesn't have the same across-the-board respect as a director like Martin Scorsese, but the genuine enthusiasm for cinema is there in spades. Westerns have been slowly dying over the last decade, but Django is a staple of what the genre has to offer. Tarantino knows each beat and every flow down to the final showdown. This will be one of the pictures that cements his legacy.

***1/2 out of ****

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Profile Posters for 'Django Unchained'

Just in case you forgot, Django Unchained is coming out this Christmas and Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio are starring in it. Also, slavery, rich people, and guns.

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Second 'Django' Trailer Is Heartening

This should quite easily wash the taste of Oscar-fare out of your mouth following a heavy November and December. I don't recommend inviting your mom to see this on Christmas, mind you, no matter how much she likes that handsome, young man from Titanic.

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International 'Django' Trailer

For our European audiences more shooting, more Samuel L. Jackson.

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Just In Case You Forgot, Quentin Tarantino Is Making A Movie About Slavery

The trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained was released today and it is filled with all of the dialogue you know and love."Kill white folks and they pay you for it? What's not to like?" Don't ever change Tarantino, don't ever change. For those of you who care to see the trailer on the bigscreen, it will be attached to Prometheus.

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Baz Luhrmann's 'Gatsby' Takes A Bow

Well... when Baz Luhrmann adapts a literary classic, he does it with panache. Amitabh Bachchan, Jay-Z, 3D, he leaves absolutely no stone unturned.

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'Django Unchained' Reveals First Look at DiCaprio and Foxx

The wait is over. The first stills of Django Unchained were released today with the three main characters on full display. Above are Django (Jamie Foxx) and Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) walking around what used to be the set for Deadwood. Foxx self-describes Django as “Richard Roundtree meets Clint Eastwood.”

Leonardo DiCaprio's Calvin Candie: a mentally-unbalanced plantation owner, who enjoys creating sparring matches between his toughest slaves. If you were wondering whether DiCaprio would play it safe with this role, the hammer wielding and fondness for gladiatorial combat should answer that.

Thus far, it looks like Tarantino has nailed the aesthetic of the film and its inhabitants. Waltz and Foxx fit in with ease in the backdrop as bounty hunters on the road to freeing Django's wife. Speaking of which, if you had told me yesterday that Leonardo DiCaprio would look this comfortable as a crazed slave-owner, I wouldn't have believed you. No one has admired hardware in such an unwholesome manner as that before.

(Courtesy: EW)

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