His movies are ambitious. Gatsby is no exception, perhaps even more of a challenge than adapting Romeo + Juliet because people are less precious about a silly Shakespearean romance than they seem to be about one of the most celebrated American novels in history. Everyone seems so preoccupied with what F. Scott Fitzgerald would think about what Baz Luhrmann is doing to his masterwork, and Baz is just like eff F. Scott, I’m making the movie my way.
That’s a decision that’s undoubtedly going to be met, and sort of is already, with a wave of scrutiny, most likely a lot of it fundamentally and unavoidably negative. Purists never like their things to be messed with. And sometimes the objections to people trying to adapt things are perfectly valid. It also takes some serious whatever-the-Australian-word-is-for-cajones to make an unbridled celebration of silly love songs so brazen that you actually include Paul McCartney’s song called “Silly Love Songs” in your love song medley. The biggest risk of all is making movies that are this different and ambitious and weird. There’s always a huge margin for failure, even just perceived failure. The rewards, however, are equally huge, and so there’s a good chance Gatsby could be this year’s Cloud Atlas: incredibly divisive, thoroughly ambitious, equal parts preposterous and sublime.
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