Thoughts on The Great Gatsby

I was actually prepared to hate this remake. I’m not a big frog-man ehm Tobey Maguire fan and I find Carey Mulligan uber boring. A normal looking Leo was the only saving grace this movie seemed to offer. That, and the sweet modern tunes of today thrown into a roaring 20’s backdrop. The whole new music in an old setting thing has been done, but I’m always a fan so whatevs.

An off-putting factor of this film is that it’s 2 hours and 20 minutes. However, I figured that I’ve spent 3 hours watching a young Leo race around the Titanic, so why couldn’t I endure this?

Instead of reviewing this flick, I’m just going to touch on some points of interest. Because now we all know that I’m the worst at reviewing movies.

Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan is not what I expected. 

I was ready for a droopy Daisy snore fest but instead I received magical Daisy chain of wonder. Lol what is that sentence? In the 1974 version of The GG, Mia Farrow played a selfish Daisy. And a very sweaty one. Is it just me, or was everyone in that movie dripping? However, in the 2013 version, Carey Mulligan plays the Daisy that everyone wants to be. She’s a relatively happy character even though her life is in shambs (shambles). It was a different take on Daisy, but I dug it. I also totally dug that Ms. Mulligan beat out a bunch of other actresses for the role including the one that shall not be named (Blake Lively). I don’t acknowledge her existence after she married my other husband Ryan Reynolds.

The trailers were misleading.

Didn’t the previews make this movie seem like an post-modern celebration filled with Jay-Z music and obnoxious flappers? Yes, it did. It was actually much calmer than I was expecting. Which is good. I really really really loved how Baz “Why is your name Baz” Luhrmann depicted the preppiness of East Egg and the new money castles of West Egg. My favorite scenes were when the audience first met Daisy in an ethereal tangle of sheer curtains and when Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy spent the day together, gallivanting around Gatsby’s property to the musical accompaniment of Lana del Rey. Perfection.

The minor characters were just as good as the main characters.

Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker

I feel like some casting directors get ballsy when it comes to choosing smaller characters by selecting wild cards (Isla Fisher plays Mrytle Wilson, wife of the mechanic) or take chances on nobodies (Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker, a top female golfer/best friend of Daisy). That being said, everyone really proved their worth, especially Joel Edgerton (who played Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s super rich husband) and Jason Clarke (as George Wilson, the mechanic stationed between East Egg and NYC).

The costume choices were superb.

I couldn’t really think of a last point besides the fact that Leo was awesome, so I guess I’ll just touch on the wardrobe. There wasn’t a stand out outfit that really made me drool like Keira Knightley’s green dress in Atonement, but there were some great looks. I appreciated all of Gatsby’s outfits, especially his pink linen suit that he saved for hot summer days. I thought Daisy’s dresses were lovely, but for some reason I liked her best in the black silk robe that she wore around Gatsby’s mansion.

Have you seen The Great Gatsby yet? What did you think?

Teeth Tales

I went to the dentist today. I’ve always been one of those weird people who liked going to the dentist. I like the idea of people cleaning part of me so that I don’t have to. Regardless of how many cavities I had or how many X-rays I needed, I would always come out with shiny, clean teeth so the trips were always successful in my eyes. It’s totally not a big deal that I had 7 cavities at one time when I was eighteen. It was chic and cavities were really in that year I swear.

Today I only had one. That’s pretty good in my book. Up until I turned eighteen, I hadn’t ever had a cavity. It was something I would brag about. Now Novocain and I are bffs. I get to go back tomorrow and get my cavity worked on, so that should be fun. My dentist still lets me pick out sweet prizes so it’s always a pleasure to go back for more. They also have a dog. It’s a pretty chill place to hang out. Oh, and they also take music requests. I swear my dentist’s office isn’t in the back of some guy’s van. That’s what I’m making it sound like.

My dental hygienist was cleaning my teeth and asked me how flossing was going for me. I said, “How do you think it’s going?” And she said that it was okay, because if I flossed, my teeth would be in perfect condish. So I’ll remember that next time I feel like impressing my dentist.

Eating an apple tonight was probably a mistake because it will be stuck in my teeth for another 6 months, I’m sure of it.

 

Tuned In

One of my favorite pictures ever.

Paul and I love listening to music. That may seem like a stupid statement–who doesn’t like listening to music? Trust me, there are weird and creepy people out there who don’t. I just want to set the record straight and say that Paul and I are cool and have good taste in music. My taste is slightly better.  And by slightly, I mean only.

When Paul and I were in England and there was nothing to do (every other day) we would go on youtube and jam out to tunes and compare faves. Every so often I would choose a song and Paul would say, “Oh, they’re Canadian.” Which would then be followed by my death stare.

Truth is, this started happening way too much. Now I realize one of Canada’s true callings is making music. And its kind of cute too because sometimes they make really bad music (The Crash-Test Dummies and Nickelback). But most of the time they know what they’re doing (Metric, Arcade Fire, Rush, City & Colour, Sam Roberts) . Either way, this country really appreciates a good song. I even noticed on one of my last posts that one of the bands I mentioned was Canadian (hint: It’s not Adele).

However, I think Canada’s specialty is guilty pleasure music. Hello Avril, Alanis, The Guess Who, and Bryan Adams. And lets not forget Biebs.