Director Baz Luhrmann is known for his grand, stylized aesthetic, but he is also known for his keen ability to place contemporary music into classic stories or those set in decades past. Whether updating the world of Romeo + Juliet from fair Verona to Verona Beach or having the leads in a musical set in 1899 sing songs like Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” and The Police’s “Roxanne,” Luhrmann always gives these musical choices a purpose whether he is bringing a well-known play into present day or infusing renewed life into the 1900s. The fact that these modern music placements actually work within these different contexts proves music really is the universal language and reminds audiences that even though these stories may not be from present day, they are certainly not dated. Luhrmann is a master at taking these stories, no matter when they were written or set, and making them feel fun, vibrant, and relevant.

Five years since Baz Luhrmann‘s first certifiable flop, Australia, the flamboyant director returns for unarguably his most ambitious and anticipated effort yet, a pulse-pounding take on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s esteemed novel, The Great Gatsby (most famously adapted previously with Robert Redford in the starring role). Though this attempt boasts all of the coveted Luhrmann hallmarks, it misses the mark precisely because it indulges those very flourishes in the most sickly, overblown fashion possible. When we first meet Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), he’s a crestfallen alcoholic, clearly shaken by events he’s experienced. To recount his story, Carraway takes us back to his first encounters with enigmatic neighbor Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), who throws luxurious parties while mystique continues to grow surrounding both his identity and his sizable wealth. Meanwhile, Carraway’s decision to re-introduce Gatsby to a former flame, Daisy (Carey Mulligan) foreshadows dangerous consequences for all involved.

“It’s like an amusement park!” a starry-eyed Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) announces without a trace of irony upon taking in the staggering excess of his first Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio, turning in yet another stellar performance) party, a dizzying and defiant spectacle set in the sprawling mansion that just so happens to be right next door to Carraway’s own rented shack. For a time, Carraway is correct – Baz Luhrmann’s take on the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel is very much like an amusement park, colorful and loud and fake and relentlessly entertaining. But as the madness (chemical and otherwise) of the story burns out, so too does Luhrmann’s trademark style, and the result is a most unexpected one, as the over-the-top pageantry of The Great Gatsby crumbles into an uninspired, flaccid adaptation that manages to deflate an enduring love story of even the most basic of human emotions. Distilled down, the love story of The Great Gatsby is about a (mostly charming) criminal, liar, and fraud who is obsessed with gathering wealth and notoriety to win back the affection of a former lover who is apparently only interested in wealth and notoriety. It’s really not the sort of love story that can be deemed “satisfying” or “relatable,” but Luhrmann and his cast attempt mightily to get audiences to care about the secretive Jay Gatsby and the duplicitous Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan’s dreamy Daisy, while effective at first, is ultimately too sweet for the part). Along the way, Maguire goes

Short Starts presents a weekly short film(s) from the start of a filmmaker or actor’s career. With the role of Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrman’s The Great Gatsby, actor Joel Edgerton continues his rise in stardom. He even has a couple of character posters to show for his fame. Long before he was embodying a character from classic American literature, though, and long before he was hunting Osama Bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty and fighting his brother in The Warrior and even playing Darth Vader’s stepbrother in the Star Wars prequels, he was a regular figure in the short subjects scene. We can thank part of this on his nationality, as Australia is a great country for short films (it’s home of Tropfest, after all). On top of that, he came up through the film collective known as Blue-Tongue Films, alongside his writer/director/stuntman brother Nash (who is Joel’s double in Gatsby) and filmmakers David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) and Spencer Susser (Hesher). Joel made his film debut in Blue-Tongue’s first work, a nine-minute film from 1996 titled Loaded, which is directed by Nash with writer Kieran Darcy-Smith. I thought about simply posting that early baby-faced short start from the actor, but seeing as he’s in so many shorts, most of which are online, I’ve sampled five of his first appearances after the jump, two of which aren’t Blue-Tongue productions, all of which feature Joel pre-beard and pre-bulk. 

The Oscar season is long gone. Long gone, I say. Movies about old presidents and singing about your horrible life are over. As are the early dumping ground months, which weren’t all that horrible this year, thankfully. Now the summer movie season has begun. Marvel, once again, is starting things off on what won’t be a tough act to follow, but a pretty darn good one. Seeing Tony Stark crack jokes for two hours isn’t the only highlight of this month or this summer. Summer 2013 is packed with plenty of movies to act giddy over, both big and small. May represents what we should come to expect over the next three months with a nice amount of variety. There are ten films this month which are must-sees:

Harmony Korine and friends already gave us a taste of sand, sun and heavy weaponry, but it doesn’t quite feel like summer yet. Maybe that’s because global warming is making everything so cool or because President Obama keeps delaying all of our vacation planes, but the hugeness of the season still hasn’t fully descended. That’ll change this weekend when Iron Man 3 drops an arc reactor into theaters. Then, the parade of unbelievably massive summer movies commences with buddy cops, mischievous teens, people probably named Khan, bald Matt Damons, super men, and the end of the world itself in tow. It’s a tight race this year. Optimism runs high, and the next few months are packed full with studios and indie outfits hoping to entertain and score big, so the task of naming the 13 most-anticipated summer movies was a tough one. So instead of hurting our brains over it, we let math do the work by putting the question to the whole staff and tallying up the results. It’s a slightly eclectic mix, displaying the powerful potential of cinematic storytelling to bring us into the cool, dark room with a single light source. As luck would have it, we found a fittingly seasonal place to start:

It’s almost time for sunscreen, something you won’t need to purchase if you plan on staying in the cool, dark space of the movie theater from June through August. But what are you going to see? How could you possibly know what’s coming out and when? Did you even know there’s a Superman movie on the way? Of course you did. Geoff and I have combed through studio press releases, had a lot of secret meetings in parking garages, and decided to talk about 6 Limited Release Summer Movies that might have slipped under the cape-filled radar. Plus, our big interview is with Cheech and Chong, who review Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines and promise to make Up in Smoke 2 if their new animated movie makes $100m in its opening week. For more from us on a daily basis, follow the show (@brokenprojector), Geoff (@drgmlatulippe) and Scott (@scottmbeggs) on the Twitter. And, as always, we welcome your feedback. Download Episode #15 Directly Or subscribe Through iTunes

This year, The Cannes International Film Festival opens on May 15th with a bombastically modern retelling of the Roaring Twenties and closes on May 26th with a South African-set crime thriller on the heels of apartheid. Everything in between looks amazing. The lineup boasts new Winding Refn, Chandor, Sofia Coppola, Miike, Denis, Coen Brothers and what looks like a nice symmetrical career send off for Steven Soderbergh, who’s bringing Behind the Candelabra there 24 years after winning the festival’s top prize with sex, lies and videotape. That means Soderbergh has an opportunity to join the elite group of multiple Palme d’Or winners, and the Coens and Roman Polanski have that potential as well. All others in competition have never won before. Plus, the non-competition films look equally fantastic. Read the full field, wipe that drool away and check to see what kind of deals you can get on plane tickets to France for May.

The Great Gatsby may tell a story that was set in the Roaring Twenties, but it’s also a Baz Luhrmann film, so there should never have been any doubt that it was going to be packed to the brim with music from some of today’s most famous artists. Want to get a taste of what it has in store, sonically? Well, you’re in luck, because this new trailer for the film shows some of the music off. It features a track that teams up Beyoncé and Andre 3000, new stuff from Lana Del Rey, and a contribution from Florence and the Machine, all packed into a little over two and a half minutes. The music that Luhrmann hired producer Jay Z to put together for the film isn’t the only thing this new trailer shows off either. The ads we’ve seen up to this point have hinted at what F. Scott Fitzgerald’s legendary story is all about, but mostly they’ve focused on showing off the visual style of Luhrmann. This new trailer digs much deeper into the Gatsby’s pursuit of married woman Daisy Buchanan, and it does a great job of selling how passionate their indiscretions are, and how dangerous the consequences their infidelities are likely to become.

While it appears that this very cool The Great Gatsby character map by graphic designer Something So Sam has been floating around on the ol’ Tumblrs for a few months, our friends over at The Playlist just found and posted it today, and we’re more than happy to pass along this nifty character map that those of you who have totally forgotten your high school English reading list (read: most of us) can peruse before Baz Luhrmann‘s take on F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s novel finally hits screens. Also, yes, this certainly contains spoilers, but Fitzgerald’s novel is only considered to be The Great American Novel and it has been in publication for over eighty years, so… The Great Gatsby opens on May 10th.

The delays that have plagued Baz Luhrmann‘s needlessly-in-3D adaptation of The Great Gatsby have been well-documented at la Film Ecole Rejecettes (refresh yourself HERE), but now that the auteur’s film will open the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, perhaps the wait was worth it. The film will be Luhrmann’s third Cannes showing (his Strictly Ballroom screened in 1992 and Moulin Rouge! served as the fest’s opener in 2001) and is the fest’s first 3D opener since Up.  Tragically, however, opening night at Cannes happens to be May 15th, while the film’s American opening date is days earlier, on May 10th. So much for capitalizing on all that Cannes goodwill, but at least the glittering spectacle will get a suitably glittering spectacle of a “premiere” at the prestigious fest. This year’s Cannes Film Festival runs from May 15th through the 26th. [Press Release]

The trailer for Gangster Squad brought us right into the world of 1940′s Los Angeles, where gangsters ruled the city under the unflinching thumb of Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) as ominous undertones vibrated against the sounds of punches and gunshots. This is a Los Angeles where crime and punishment rule rather than glitz and glamour, and the clothes, the hair, the makeup, the cars, and the guns alone let us know we are in a different time. But then a commanding female singer’s vocals cut through the chaos telling us to “get low,” while a hip-hop beat started to drive the action. This 1940′s world suddenly got a jolt of good ol’ contemporary R&B as Mr. HOV himself, Jay-Z, breaks in with his track “Oh My God.” His lyrics may be from a song released in 2006, but they do not feel out of place here saying: “A journey seldom seen / The American dream.” Gangster movies are appealing because they give audiences a glimpse into that dangerous world and Mickey Cohen has clearly convinced himself that what he is doing is simply living the American dream his way. Unfortunately this unique pairing of modern music with a period story exists solely in the trailer, while the film instead opts for an exclusively 1940′s feel. With a soundtrack full of songs from artists of that time such as Pee Wee King, Big Jay McNeely, and Peggy Lee it is this idea of taking itself too seriously that seems to be Gangster Squad’s inevitable downfall. Hoping to be a

At what point can we start calling Baz Luhrmann a troll instead of a filmmaker? If Australia – the flabby apotheosis of a supposedly beloved country — doesn’t count, then maybe having Jay-Z score an adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” does. According to collaborator The Bullitts’ twitter feed (via HitFix), ”Jay-Z and myself have been working tirelessly on the score for the upcoming #CLASSIC The Great Gatsby! It is too DOPE for words!”

If there’s one thing our culture never gets tired of, it’s tabloid news. Taking a promising young pretty person, anointing them with almost mythic stature, and then feasting on their misery like psychic vampires when they eventually succumb to scandal and fall from grace…that’s the name of the game! Seeing as the new trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby sticks pretty closely to this formula, and presents things with the flashy, kinetic visual style that the director has become famous for, chances are it’s going to do a good job of selling this story to a wider audience than was willing to read Fitzgerald’s novel in their high school English class. When it was first announced that Luhrmann was going to be tackling material as generally dry as Gatsby, and filming it in 3D no less, the entire notion seemed kind of absurd. But after watching this trailer, it starts to make a bit of sense. Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is getting what he wants by entering and mastering a world of artifice. The main drama in the story is generally concerned with who’s sleeping with who. Plus, this is a period piece that affords its director the opportunity to stage several lavish parties. All of that isn’t too far off from what Luhrmann has already done with Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!

How awkward that the first piece of marketing for Baz Luhrmann‘s still-ludicrously-3D take on F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s most famous work to strike any sort of literary chord is this brand new batch of character posters for The Great Gatsby.Featuring the film’s six principle stars (that’s Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan, Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson, and Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker), each crisply-designed poster features a quote from the novel about their respective characters. What an idea! Using text to illuminate a new adaptation of a text. Drop the 3D, Baz, this stuff is what looks good. After the break, brush up on your high school lit, and meet Daisy, Nick, Jordan, Tom, and Myrtle.

Well, have you seen Moulin Rouge? In some of the least surprising news of possibly the entire decade, The Playlist has dug up news that Baz Luhrmann‘s plagued The Great Gatsby won’t just come with the added gimmick of 3D, but possibly with a Prince and Lady Gaga-heavy soundtrack. You know what, Baz? That’s fine. It’s really fine. It’s certainly better than using 3D to tell the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald story. It’s at least much more predictable. The outlet sat down with Adelaide Clemens (who co-stars in Luhrmann’s film), and she revealed the news, saying that “they have some new music that’s going to be added to the film…Some pretty huge artists have approached Baz and are writing songs for the film, and I don’t think Warner Bros. are going to turn down Prince and Lady Gaga knocking down your door.” Somewhat charmingly, The Playlist pressed her for more confirmation on said artists, and “she confirmed she was referring to the Prince and the Lady Gaga, demurring, ‘I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that.’” Thank goodness Prince has returned to his classic stage name, just imagine how confusing this would be if poor Clemens was trying to convey that (insert symbol here) might be doing some work on the soundtrack.

Let it never be said that Hollywood is not creative – at least when it comes to changing up things like, oh, the seasons. The summer movie season has progressively gotten longer and longer, kicking off when we’re still technically in the spring months, and then encroaching on September (which is autumn, because it’s back-to-school time, okay?). Now, Warner Bros. has officially decided that the month of May is summer (“early summer,” but “summer” nonetheless) in a press release announcing the “early summer” (read: May) release date for Baz Luhrmann‘s The Great Gatsby. The potentially troubled film, once slated for a glitzy Christmas release, was pushed away from the holiday season last month, with a promise that a new release date would be set soon. WB has announced today (via ComingSoon) that The Great Gatsby (still inexplicably in 3D) will open in North America on May 10, 2013, with international release following a week later. As ComingSoon notes, a second-week-of-May release date isn’t usually a good thing. Recent releases saddled with such a date include Speed Racer, Poseidon, House of Wax, and Dark Shadows (yeesh!), but CS’s own Ed Douglas also points out that some Best Picture nominee heavy hitters also opened on a similar date – titles like Gladiator and Crash. Luhrmann himself is no stranger to the date – his Moulin Rouge! opened in limited release in mid-May as well.

Lawless features some towering performances. Tom Hardy commands with every grunt, Guy Pearce snarls in every scene, and Gary Oldman gives a quietly vicious performance. Then there’s Jason Clarke, playing the oldest of the three Bondurant brothers, Howard. He’s the brute of the group, the unhinged ox who’s seen a mass-scale violence, and he has clearly been affected by it. Clarke, like Hardy and his grunts, walks through the film with a lumbering physicality, as if he’s not even in much control over his own violent tendencies. That physicality is a factor Clarke put a lot of thought into, from using a smaller heel on his boot to wearing weights on his ankles. It’s that sort of commitment which seems to have earned the actor gigs with the likes of Baz Luhrmann, Kathryn Bigelow, John Hillcoat, and the two peas in the pod, Roland Emmerich and Terrence Malick. The actor was kind enough to take time off from walking around the White House for Emmerich to discuss his love for research, finding a character, and how you should never be afraid to go big.

Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Wes Bentley, Isabel Lucas, Joel Kinnaman, Imogen Poots, Freida Pinto, and Ryan O’Neal…with that cast, and others unmentioned, one would think Terrence Malick would have enough actors for a single movie. Apparently, that’s not the case, as Malick has added another name to his project about life, love, and probably other poetic things of that nature. That name is Jason Clarke. While speaking with us today about John Hillcoat‘s Lawless, Clarke revealed he just finished shooting on Malick’s Knight of Cups. When discussing the visionary filmmakers he’s worked with lately - Michael Mann, Baz Luhrmann, Kathryn Bigelow, and so on -  the actor made sure to mention Malick’s name in that list, ”I did a film with Terrence Malick as well. Knight of Cups, it’s another one that he’s producing.”

The trailer for Baz Luhrmann‘s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s The Great Gatsby was all kinds of flashy and promising, so when the news of the film’s Christmas release getting scrapped broke, it seemed as if the Oscar contender wasn’t exactly the awards picture everyone was making it out to be. Warner Bros. stated the release shift was only a matter of reaching the biggest audience possible, but if they really felt that confident in their 3D Luhrmann Fest, it’s doubtful the film would’ve had a difficult time reaching a broad audience come Christmas. Now, we’ve received news which raises questions over whether Warners was one hundred percent truthful with their reasoning. Luhrmann is currently seeking outside funds to “complete” the film, with Warner Bros. unwilling to sink any more cash into the $127m project. Luhrmann is attempting to privately raise funds for both additional reshoots and to polish the film’s substantial amount of effects.