100W: The Great Gatsby

As a writer, it is expected that you keep to a strict word-count. When you pick up a magazine, articles can be a 100-word write-up or a 1000-word analysis. Notes created for films are easily over 100 words - so this feature will focus on reviewing films in a concise 100 words. No more, no less.

The Great Gatsby (Dir. Baz Luhrmann/2013)

The Great Gatsby explodes onto the screen like popcorn – flavours of fashionable 1920’s fused with Jay-Z hip-hop deliver an innovative and glossy adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic story. Nick Carraway (Maguire) guides us through the world of Gatsby (DiCaprio) while his friends Tom (Edgerton) and Daisy (Mulligan) show the ugly side of affluence. The enormous scale director Baz Luhrmann works upon can only be commended, but it is narrator Tobey Maguire who crumbles under the lavish world created. But don’t be disheartened as DiCaprio delivers an intelligent performance that steals the show ensuring only fond memories of Gatsby remain.

Rating: 7/10

The Simon and Jo Show Podcast: 31/01/2010

From a theatrical beginning on Trafalgar Square to a cinematic finish on Leicester Square, Simon and Jo discuss a range of cinema issues. The chart and new releases are discussed - with a deeper insight into Jim Sheridan's Brothers starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire - and Jo's love of Tobey Maguire -and Lee Daniel's Precious.

To finish we discuss Sundance and Disney's decision to shutdown a huge chunk of Miramax - a company that provided the early nineties with some of the greatest films of independent cinema and gave Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderberg and Kevin Smith a platform to begin their careers from.

http://simonandjoshow.mypodcast.com/