Movie Review: Not Exactly Your Grandmother's Gatsby

Critics' reviews for Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's culturally and generationally transcendent masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, have been mixed, to be coy. If I could shout anything from the rooftops in response to seeing this film, it'd be this: the common denominator for enjoying this movie is Luhrmann. If you come into it expecting to see, not only an American classic, but a Luhrmann film, in all its gaudy, festive glory, you should walk out of the theater having enjoyed yourself.

However, if you want to see the book played out before you exactly the way Fitzgerald wrote it, be warned. After all, this is the same guy who dressed Harold Perrineau in drag as a Black Mercutio. What were you really expecting?

Movie poster for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby

If anything, Luhrmann is allowed to take liberties with the story because, at this point in time, who hasn't either read the book (even if it was only because you had to in high school) or seen one of the films? We all know the story well: the central themes of opulence, the American Dream, the decadence and restlessness of the Jazz Age. The callousness of love and the lengths we would go to in order to hold onto it, no matter how far away it is. And we are reminded that it can seem impossibly far away, even if it's just across the bay. 

Still, knowing how the story ends allows us to feel everything so much more profoundly. All of Gatsby's boyish optimism about his future with Daisy is heartbreaking because we want to believe it with him, as we did when we first encountered the story, but we know the tragedy that awaits him for wanting so badly things he simply wasn't "born with," as Tom Buchanan puts it. But our knowledge of the material, and the high pedestal on which we place Gatsby, can also be a downfall for a director who has to impress a cynical audience. We know what we're looking for in each of the roles and Luhrmann's way of introducing his reincarnated characters seems to be a grand reveal that drags on a bit long or comes off a bit too forced. For example, Daisy's first appearance is only her hand and the sound of her childlike giggles. You see a body part here and there as she is slowly uncoiled among a room of excessively billowing white curtains, until she is finally uncovered, emerging like an angel from the sea of milky white. Except, it doesn't really end up having that impact. It's more, "Get to the point, already! We know it's Carey Mulligan."

Now, it wouldn't be a true Baz Luhrmann film if it didn't have two things: an audacious, scene-stealing soundtrack and an outrageous party scene. Give Luhrmann a party scene and he becomes a kid in a candy store. "It's like an amusement park!" Nick beams wondrously at his first Gatsby party. And an amusement park it is. Luhrmann's ability to create a party scene in which everyone appears to be on acid is no new feat. Creating an ambiance of the craziest party you've ever been to is a trademark of his most famous films (again, Harold Perrineau, white wig, shimmery ensemble). But it's unfortunately not enough to make the first half of this movie any less draggy than it ended up (no pun intended, there was no cross-dressing in this film). 

The second half, I will say, surprisingly stuck pretty closely to the book and the 1974 film. And that's where it takes the cake. Although I thoroughly enjoyed Robert Redford as Gatsby and loved hating Mia Farrow as Daisy, that movie (146 minutes long) seemed to go on forever. This one (143 minutes long), while the scenes could have been shorter, was at least entertaining to look at. And to listen to. With all the hype and controversy surrounding the film's soundtrack, it's safe to say that it was hard not to notice all the modern music these 20s characters were dancing to (at one point, a group of African Americans pass by the central characters in a car being driven by a White man, while they sip champagne and blast Jay-Z's "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)"). 

But with that being said, most of the songs barely appeared for more than a passing moment. I was able to make out the opening lyrics of Florence + the Machine's dramatic ballad "Over the Love" before it left as quickly as it came. I also heard a glimpse of the barely recognizable Beyonce cover of "Back in Black" before that, too, faded away in a flash. At the end of it all, it was Jay-Z and Lana Del Rey who were the clear centerpieces of the film. Jay-Z's "$100 Bill," "No Church in the Wild," "Who Gon Stop Me" and "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" appeared in the film/trailer. 

But Luhrmann makes it clear that Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful," which he co-wrote with her, is the real star here. The song surfaces, ever changing, several times throughout Daisy and Gatsby's encounters and really reminds you of the beautiful synergy between film and music. Sometimes, certain films are elevated by their scores and soundtracks. Similarly, certain songs are more powerful in the context of a scene. This is the case for "Young and Beautiful." While it's another musical triumph for Del Rey, on its own, it doesn't reach the crescendo, the grand finale, that you want it to. In the context of Gatsby and Daisy reuniting for the first time in years and staring ravenously into each other's eyes, it's enough to give you goosebumps. It works perfectly as the theme song of Daisy's life, and her sorrowful, passionate, if not vapid, relationship with Gatsby.

DiCaprio as Gatsby, anxiously awaiting a reunion with Daisy (Mulligan)

While I may have (and perhaps still kind of do) have my reservations about the modernized soundtrack (I would have liked to hear an Eight to the Bar song), it speaks to my earlier reference that the story of Gatsby is intergenerational. It works as well in 2013 as it did in the 20s, 40s and 70s. And it's even more so exemplified in people like Jay-Z, who can easily be considered a hip-hop Gatsby. He went from poverty to extreme wealth, prestige and being married to one of the most beautiful and powerful women on the planet (who, interestingly enough, comes from money...see what I did there?). The soundtrack is an interpretation itself of how we interpret a universal theme all these years later from a pastiche of our favorite artists across multiple genres of music. 

And of course, the film could have completely flopped if not for proper casting. Leonardo DiCaprio recalls his earlier boyishness as Gatsby, making you fall for him all over again in a way you haven't since Jack Dawson. Tobey Maguire is a perfect wallflower as the observant and perceptive Nick Carraway. Newcomer Elizabeth Debicki is stunning, yet understated, as bystander Jordan. Carey Mulligan makes for a Daisy that is more difficult to hate as she doesn't appear as vain and materialistic (probably more a result of the writing), but fairy-ish and aloof nonetheless. Joel Edgerton is deliciously virile and wicked as Tom Buchanan. And some nice surprises appear, such as Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim. 

I could go on, but I've already given you a mouthful to chew on while you contemplate how you'll feel about the remastered Gatsby. It's not perfect, and I certainly WOULD NOT recommend seeing it in 3D, but all in all, give it a fair and honest try, go in with a complete open mind and remember: it's definitely not your grandmother's Gatsby.

kNOw Justice, kNOw Peace

Oh, I was going to get to this sooner or later. I held my tongue when Lupe came out with "Bitch Bad," a song that was supposed to hold a mirror up to Black society and preach about the abomination it's turning into, but was instead met with "Oh, shut up, Lupe." I didn't say a damn thing about the ignorant backlash regarding "Hunger Games" star Amandla Stenberg (a mulatta) playing the part of Rue, who readers had (mistakenly) thought was a precious White girl. Enough is quite enough.

Amandla Stenberg

Before you proceed, please heed this caveat and abstain from getting the idea that I am lumping any race into one category. When I say Whites, I am speaking of a very specific group of White people: those who perpetuate intolerance and/or ignorance. Back to your scheduled program.

On Sunday, Jamie Foxx was presented with the 2013 Generation Award at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards (which I don't go out of my way to catch anymore). As he walked onstage, he gave the cameras, and the world, a clear shot of his t-shirt: an homage to Trayvon Martin and the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. Above a big portrait of Martin were the words "kNOw Justice" and below the photo the words "kNOw Peace." Surrounding Martin's massive portrait were smaller photos of the children who perished at Sandy Hook. 

The backlash was immediate and unfiltered. People (specifically, White people) on Twitter were pissed. How dare he wear a controversial Black face so proudly near his heart? What nerve he had to make Martin's face bigger than the innocent (mostly White) children. The audacity that he can't just let it go, that he's standing in solidarity with an important face of the Black struggle, the Black injustice, the Black truth.

Jamie Foxx at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards

Because that's always been a problem, right? It's seen as unity and comradeship when Asians help their fellow Asians, when Hispanics look out for their fellow Hispanics and when Whites support their White brothers and sisters. But when Blacks have each other's backs, we're being exclusive. We're racist. It's a problem. It's scary. That's why we've always been divided, isn't it? They love seeing us fight each other. They bring out their popcorn and enjoy the show, the gaping fissure they've created that causes tension, even hatred, among Blacks. The second we start getting along and banding together, we must be stopped. Stopped before we become too powerful. Before our voices are heard and the truth rings free, out in the open.

Some of the tweets that were publicized in reaction to Foxx's statement t-shirt were just ignorant and others were downright hateful and meant to be degrading. It doesn't surprise me that racial tensions are at an all-time high. In fact, according to a Huffington Post article I read a while back, the percentage of White racists today is higher than it was right before Obama was elected into office. Now, don't get me wrong, we've come a long way. And I have tons of White friends who couldn't care less about race. But in this day and age, we should be a little further along than we are collectively.

Then again, we are in the age of the Internet. Where people are free to say as they please. I believe what these people do is put out this vitriol under the cloak of anonymity just to ruffle feathers, just because they can. But they spend so much time doing so, they really begin to get sucked into the contempt they put out; they become the hate they create. Perhaps so much so, that they begin to live the atrocity that they had previously preached only for a reaction.

Most of the tweets that were highlighted in the article referred to Martin as a "thug," a "nigger" and a "criminal" who got what he deserved and was rightfully wasted from this world so that he could no longer carry out crimes that CLEARLY all Black men exclusively are bound to commit. They even called Foxx a racist who "wouldn't be wearing that shirt if Trayvon Martin were white." Again, standing up for each other is "racist." Would Jamie Foxx have worn that shirt if Trayvon Martin had been White? Honestly, probably not. Not because he's a racist, but because of the cultural significance the Trayvon Martin case had in America.

Just some of the Twitter backlash in response to
Foxx's shirt (Photo courtesy of Public Shaming Tumblr)

Black culture is riddled with adages made popular by 90s hip-hop like "fuck the police" and "the White man's always trying to keep the brothers down." Of course, many people have chosen to turn a blind eye to the injustices done to African Americans both through individual racism and systematic racism. These ideas have been brushed off as conspiracy theories and excuses made by the Black community to justify their servile standing in society. Imagine the guilt that would befall White people if they had to admit that the system was really designed so that Black people have to work ten times harder just to have a remote chance at the American dream. It's comfortable to live in ignorance. Ignorance, as they say, is bliss. 

If we didn't flip the channel every time a poor child in tattered clothing in a third world country showed up on the TV screen, we'd be forced to think about the things we take for granted everyday. We'd have no choice but to rot inside at the thought of living our hedonistic, gluttonous, ostentatious lifestyles. So it's comfortable not to know. Because there's a certain discomfort that arises, a guilt, if you will, when our actions don't match our beliefs. This feeling of unease is cognitive dissonance. In order to alleviate this vexation, we pretend we don't know so that we don't have to readjust the way we live to match what we actually do know to be the right thing. 

Trayvon Martin wasn't harming anyone. Nor did he have any intent to harm anyone. What he may or may not have done at any point before that night had nothing to do with the fact that he was merely walking down the street minding his own business. What happened could have been avoided had George Zimmerman followed police instructions and stayed put. The consequences of his actions exposed on a national scale what Black people had been saying all along: we're targeted simply for being Black and in the wrong place. In a place we are not welcome.

Yet still, while most of America conceded that his murder was undeniably wrong, certain people sought any reason to demonize Martin. They dug up any dirt they could to assuage the guilt of witnessing the slaughter of a teenage boy who was armed with nothing but a few snacks. Rather than calling him a "guy," "young man" or a "person," they refer to him as "thug," "nigger," "criminal." Anything that takes away his humanity and replaces it with bestiality. And they wonder why Black people get so riled up about this.

One of my favorite books is Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, about a Black man trying to find his way in a society that consistently degrades him until he is forced to become a recluse and live outside the law. From that book comes one of my favorite lines: "To whom can I  be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?" A perfect example of what sociologists refer to as the labeling theory. If you tell someone they are something enough, eventually, they will believe it and become the very thing you've labeled them as. You tell a woman she's ugly enough, no matter how scientifically beautiful she actually is, she will begin to see ugly every time she looks at herself. 

This is what Black people have succumbed to. So long have we been told we're not good enough, we're not worthy, we're not beautiful, we can't make it, being brutish is in our nature, that we actually start to believe it. Many of us either stop trying, dumb ourselves down, act out violently or start trying to live up to White standards of perfection. For example, Nicki Minaj, who fancies herself a "Barbie" and models her look after a European aesthetic (blond hair, blue contacts, light make-up, etc.). So essentially, White people paint a picture of who they think we are, we subconsciously live up to it, and they're provided with more ammunition to say "I told you so." It's like asking someone repeatedly to slap you in the face and then getting upset when they actually do it.

Great quote from a very wise man (Photo courtesy of
Interracial Dating Facebook)

When is it going to be okay for us to stick up for each other? We've been pitted against one another for so long because they fear that when we stand together, we will become a force. We will be powerful beyond measure. But we've bought into it. Light skin vs. dark skin, Black Americans vs. Africans vs. Haitians, upper class vs. lower class. We divide ourselves up into any category we can squeeze ourselves into. It has to be okay for us to come together. It's not a matter of gathering an army so that we can take over, but so that we can merely stand next to our brothers and sisters of all races and ethnicities in equality without any struggles for power and superiority.

I wish I could relay that message to these Internet gangsters. These people who feel so safe behind the veil of a computer screen that they can so easily spit quick, reckless, spontaneous bits of venom that spread like wildfire and become immortalized in the vast abyss of the World Wide Web. But I know many of them are far too proud, too resistant, too set in their ways to listen to reason. But I want them to know anyway, that we will continue to wear these bold displays of support for all of our brethren who have been wronged, be they Black, White, Asian, Green, Red or Blue. If there is no justice, there will be no peace. And until we know justice, we cannot know peace.

Reaction to the Boston Marathon Explosions

The statuses and messages I've seen throughout the day regarding the tragedy at the Boston marathon has been overwhelmingly synonymous: look for the helpers. Don't think about the lowlives who did this; think of those who are pulling together to fix it. In all other tragedies I've lived through,

A popular photo currently making the rounds on social media.

Columbine, 9/11, Virginia Tech, Aurora, and Sandy Hook, to name a few, the reactions were all shock, horror and disgust in the realm of "What kind of monsters would do such a thing?" and "What kind of a world do we live in?" 

Today, most people didn't bother to ask. They ceased to ask these questions that prove to be counterproductive and instead their instinct was to help, to do something. To answer one of the questions above, we live in the real world. A world that has never been devoid of tragedy, horror and villains. And it is tempting to focus on the villains because we cannot comprehend what would possess someone to do this. We, with our golden hearts, who would rather create and heal than destroy and break. It's moot trying to rationalize the actions of such cancerous psychopaths. Some things are beyond comprehension. 

I think the most important thing is to show them that they can't so easily break us. We may bend and get shook up, but we mustn't break. No matter how far removed we are personally from these incidents, we should take the perspective that if it affects one of us, it affects us all. We need to reach out to our neighbors and help strengthen them so they feel less like victims and more like warriors. I believe that if we rally together in this way, then, and only then, will these perpetrators learn to fear us rather than us loving in constant fear of them. They will want to shake and rattle us. Let them shake and rattle us, but let us not stir or stumble.  Let us stand firmly as though our feet are nailed to the ground. Let them know that they can stand with us or against us, but it is in their best interest to stand with us because together, we are a force. Together, you really don't want to piss us off.  

Today, I heard the voices of people who have had enough. Who know there is more to come and are willing to fight and start focusing on the positive in order to make the negative feel more insignificant. Today, I saw the faces of people who did not hesitate to lend a hand in any way they could, who did not let their shock keep them on the sidelines. Today, everyone was on the front lines, and although I still feel a heaviness in my heart, I still retain faith in humanity.

We live in the real world. We can say all we want how we shouldn't have to teach our daughters how not to get raped and teach our sons how not to get themselves killed, but that's not how life works. In life, there are and will always be bad guys and good guys. Good guys are not those who refrain from delinquent behavior. They are those who risk danger to fight the good fight. Who deliberately try to restore the damage caused by the bad guys and bring them to justice. Teach your children that. This is the real world. It will get tough. You will cry. You will want to give up. But you won't. Because you're never alone in the fight. Because for every villain, there are multiple times as many helpers. 

The Fall: A Poem

Do you know what it's like to fall in love with something you essentially know nothing about? Like, you've already made up your mind in your head of what it will be like, so you've fooled yourself into thinking that's what it actually? I do that all the time.

I fall in love with things and people the way I want them to be. Before I've even experienced them for myself. Most of the time, I'm setting myself up for bitter disappointment upon the discovery that the fantasy does not synchronize with the reality. I was worried about that same disappointment setting in when I first moved to NYC three months ago.

Ever since I first moved to this country at age five, I coveted New York City. The Big Apple. The City of Dreams. My parents had visited NYC together before we officially made the big move and I was hoping they'd trake me straight there. They didn't. They took me to Maryland. But I never lost my passion for the city. I swore that I'd make it there one day.

New York City now isn't what it used to be. That's what people say. It used to be uninhibited. Audacious. Bombastic. And now it's lost its fire. Famously, in a Sex and the City Scene made epic by Kristen Johnston, she plays life-of-the-party-girl Lexi Featherston, who hasn't stopped even after the party is over. No one wants to do cocaine anymore. No one is fun anymore. "New York is over," she says, cigarette in hand, before falling to her death.

I'm sure NYC was an amazing place before recessions, AIDS and the Internet but it still possesses some of the very things that made it what it was: diversity, eccentricity, the ability to make things happen for yourself and pursue your dreams on a bigger scale than you'd be able to in Nowheresville, MD. And after nearly a decade of wanting it, I finally made it happen and it was the most terrifying thing ever.

I had been so eager to reach this goal that I hadn't thought about whether or not it was something that I still really wanted or was worth it. That didn't hit me until I was here, sitting along in a strange room and contemplating for the first time what I had done. But at the end of it all, I know my biggest regret would have been not taking this risk at all in the first place. These are the moments that make the most enchanting stories. Cheers to refusing to play it safe. Oh, and then I scribbled this poem onto some rusty piece of paper.

The Fall

Something uncontrollable stirred inside me,
like I was a teapot.
Water or hot lava perhaps
bubbled to the surface
and emanated furiously from my eyes, stinging.
Tears I had not cried in years.

Everything hit me all at once.
That I had accomplished what I set out to.
That everything would change from now on.
That I had to change with it or risk
being left behind.
That the kindness of people had led me
to this moment.
And that I was completely alone.

My comfort had been an enemy to my success,
so my discomfort would have to serve as its companion.
There is nothing so terrifying as uncertainty.
That leap of faith is no longer frightening
because of what lies below,
but because of the fact that
you can't retract once you've taken it.
There is nothing left but the landing.

So taken aback was I by the intensity
of my emotion that I forgot to be
thankful that I could feel again.
That I was bold enough to risk the pain
of crashing.
And so, if my landing is rough, I hope I have
the strength left in me to do it all over again.
And if my landing is smooth, I hope
to never forget the rush of the fall.

-Maryline

Three-Minute Shower Challenge CONCLUSION

I completely forgot that I had documented my three-minute shower challenge here and turned my experiences into an article for Grid Magazine, Philly's sustainable living publication. Here is the link to the original article on Grid's site, in case you can't see it below. I highly recommend checking out the publication itself, too. Enjoy!

Dispatch: Money Down the Drain - How I learned to say goodbye to half-hour showers.

FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2011 AT 3:23PM

Story by Maryline Dossou | Illustration by Kirsten Harper

I distinctly recall my sister pulling back the shower curtain and telling me that my dad was seconds from exploding. I was in elementary school and had developed a habit of falling asleep in the shower every morning—staying in there for easily half an hour. I used to stay up all night knowing I could get some extra sleep in the shower. I’ve never been a morning person, so I switched to taking nighttime showers. That worked until I got to college.

My best friend (and roommate) would blast music while in the shower, and I always found that to be weird. One day, while innocently recording her singing in the shower, I was intrigued by how much fun she seemed to be having and decided to try it out for myself. I created a shower playlist and went to town. What began as harmless fun soon turned into a wasteful, careless, time-consuming habit.

I’d stay in until my skin got so pruned, it was almost numb. There was nothing like washing off days of classes, work, gym, activities and internships with an R&R party for one.

Right around Earth Day this year I heard that the online magazine Her Campus (to which I contribute, hercampus.com) was partnering with the Body Shop to encourage girls to take daily three-minute showers for two weeks and blog about it. As if the world had caught on to my dirty secret, I was also bombarded with shower facts from green advocates around campus—like that for every minute the shower runs, we waste, on average, one gallon of water. It seemed as good a time as any to change my habits, so I started my own two-week, three-minute shower challenge.

It was awful. I felt like a lifelong smoker who had quit cold turkey. How am I going to shave? How could I possibly be clean? Will my life retain any meaning? Questions swam through my mind. I timed my showers using three-minute songs, counting the days until I could return to my beloved routine.

One week in, curled in the fetal position in bed, I tried to find meaning in this torture. Was I doing this to learn a lesson, or simply to say I’d completed a “green” challenge? The latter seemed like a poor reason.
Then I started to see the light. I learned not to waste time just standing around under the spray, and how to shave in the sink. I also realized (and I’m very embarrassed to admit this) that not only did I spend a long time in the shower; I kept it running for a long time before I even got in. Often, I would be on the phone for an hour at a time with the shower on blast. Then I’d get in for 25 minutes.

Today, I’ve turned it around, but it’s still a daily struggle—I’m a recovering shower-holic, after all. But I’ve managed to cut my shower time down to about 10 to 12 minutes, and I’m pretty happy with the progress that I’ve made. It probably all seems pretty dramatic, but, sadly, the issue of water waste was never really addressed in my world until I got to college. My schools didn’t consider it a priority and my parents were unaware of the damage I was causing because, as renters, they didn’t have to worry about the water bill. Many people don’t concern themselves and their children with these issues because it doesn’t affect them directly. Luckily, it’s never too late to recognize our faults and gradually work through them. Who knows? Maybe—maybe—one day I can upgrade to taking under-two-minute Navy showers.

Maryline A. Dossou is a senior in Temple University’s Journalism department. Read her work for Her Campus at hercampus.com/maryline-dossou.

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tagged Dispatch, Maryline Dossou, conservation, water

Dying Young and I'm Playing Hard

"I'm not old. I still have my legs, my force, and my spirit by God's grace. And I use them everyday. So I'll never be old."

That's what my dad just said to me on the phone. He turned 53 today. He said as long as you live

He's actually pretty hot.

young, you'll never be old. And those who have fully functioning bodies and minds but are too lazy to use them are the old ones. I've always admired that about my father. We've had a difficult relationship and differences that run deeper than I can even scratch the surface of in a blog post (or care to, at that), but he's always possessed certain qualities that I find refreshing.

He looks at life with such a youthful, if at times naive, alacrity. Everything is an adventure waiting to be had, new territory waiting to be explored and new experiences waiting to be memories. He lives life hard, with passion. He's more active and engaged than most men I've met half his age and can probably even still drink them under the table. He laughs hard, parties hard and spends every dime he makes trying to ensure that he never lives a dull moment.

In that sense, he's the complete opposite of my mother. She plays by the rules, never daring to go where she's told not to go. She keeps to herself and only ever does what she has to do, as opposed to what she wants to do. And yet, for a split second, sometime decades ago, they saw something in each other that perhaps they wanted to see in themselves. In my father, my mother probably saw a spontaneity she secretly longed to have. And in her, he saw an impressive and awe-inspiring level of self-mastery.

And they came together and bore a Libra; a balance.  A perfect coalescence of yin and yang. I like to think I'm the perfect balance of their opposing personalities, but I'm not. Not yet. I've struggled all my life with the two extremes. On the one hand, being too unhinged and unpredictable like father and on the other, too reclusive and inhibited like my mother. I've learned to tone down the wild side of myself but still struggle to ignite a fire in the tamer side.

"No one ever excused his way to success."

But my father is right. I've been out running and seen people three times my age pass me. I've heard people old enough to be my parents make exciting plans for the weekend while mine consisted of doing laundry and catching up on reality television. Life is for those who realize how much it's worth living. it only asks one thing from us and that is effort. We can sit around all day expecting our goals to be miraculously met, but that's not how life works. We have to get up and earn it. We have to take the initiative and stop putting things off. We have to go out and engage in the world, or as Chbosky would say, "participate." That's the only way to ever truly avoid getting old.

Oh, and happy birthday daddy...ya old fart.