ADAPTATIONS & THE GREAT GATSBY:

When looking at an adaptation, analysing the originality and cleverness of the story is something that cannot be done. Only minor details can be changed by the director in order to make an adaptation, and when looking critically at a film such as Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, it is important to take note of this. What we can look at in terms of analysis is the cinematography, the screenplay and the (small) changes that Luhrmann did make to the classic novel.

Immediately this film screams Baz Luhrmann, the blinding colours and exaggerated everything gives a wonderful presentation of the roaring twenties, a time of excess and partying. If there is one thing that I have talked to friends and fellow film students about in agreement, it is that the film is extremely aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable to watch purely on the basis of the glamour of the whole thing.

If there's one thing that I heard people moaning about before the movies release, it was the music. Let me just take this time to say how these people clearly have not seen a Baz Luhrmann film before. He made Shakespeare with a soundtrack consisting of Radiohead. The guy is a musical genius, in my opinion, the songs were so fitting and it is quite rightly so that the soundtrack is doing extremely well in sales.

Adding Nick's situation at the start and end of the film was a clever way of introducing the narrative from his point of view. Although any changes to the novel were going to upset people, Luhrmann stuck to the story perfectly, in my opinion, only changing what needed to be changed for cinematic purposes.

The film is outstanding. At just over two hours long, it presents a classic piece of 20th century literature for a 21st century audience, managing to hold a sold out audiences attention and produce laughs, screams and tears, even though the novel came out over 90 years ago and the majority of both viewings I have attended have been people who have read the book (I talk to random people at the cinema, is that bad? Probably). Go and see this film if you haven't yet.

FAST & FURIOUS 6 REVIEW:

I have never seen a Fast & Furious film before.
I had never seen a Fast & Furious film before tonight.

I thought, going into this film with a couple of university friends, that I would hate it. Action is not my thing at all. The opening, lets say, twenty minutes were okay, followed by pretty much an hour of constant car chases and fight sequences. During this hour, it was almost impossible for someone like myself, who had never seen any of the previous films in the franchise, to get a grip on the characters, and who is who, who is fighting with each other & who is fighting against each other.
A very confusing car chase (the first one, for those who've seen it) had me confused, characters seemed to be shooting at each other without reason and I could not, for the life of me, tell who was fighting for what team. This car scene, along with the other fight scenes of the first hour, really made that experience almost unenjoyable.

After the first hour however, in what I like to call the 'second' part of the film, everything changed. These characters who I had only been introduced to an hour before had me hooked and the development in narrative was at a perfect pace. The mixture of comedy and drama in the story was enough to get my interests back in the film and the focus switched from these fast cars and hot women to a genuinely interesting plot.

The climax of the film comes with a really long scene in an army base. An aircraft carrier is involved and things get crazy. The use of CGI is mesmerising, with explosions happening every five seconds, but the thing that caught my attention the most in this scene was the most effective piece of camerawork in the whole film. A simple focus-shift of the camera shows vital piece of information (this is a no spoiler zone) and the audience of the cinema (which was surprisingly large for a 10.30pm showing over a week after the release of the film) gasped in amazement.

This is a short review, I don't feel I was emotionally involved enough with the film to write an in-depth analysis of it, however I will leave you with some closing comments.

If you go and see this film, stick with it for the first 45 minutes or so. As with the majority of films, it starts out slow, but the pace does pick up and you will find yourself being taken away with this whirlwind film. A fun, action-packed film that solidifies any doubt in your mind that family comes first over everything in the Fast & Furious franchise (hey, I did some research).

OVERVIEWING CANNES: TOP 3:

With the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival about coming to a close, I thought it would be a perfect introductory post to mention some of the films that were shown that I am most excited to see. As an average film goer, I obviously did not attend Cannes, my guess is as good as yours as to which films will be the biggest successes.

1. ONLY GOD FORGIVES. dir. Nicolas Winding Refn.
(Starring: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas)

The reviews surrounding the premiere of this film were overridden by the apparent boo’s from some (disrespectful) members of the audience. The graphic and extreme violence caused some audience members to leave, and there was an overall sense of disappointment with this film, that was gaining an extreme amount of hype on the internet. The film, according to the trailer, looks to be interesting, and I think a lot of the negative criticisms came with the reporter’s imagining the film to be almost a sequel to Drive, Refn’s last film starring Gosling. The expectations of the audience is something that can completely corrupt somebodies opinion of a film, and I, for one, will be going into the screening of this film with no other films in mind for comparison.

Only God Forgives is out in UK cinemas on August 2nd.

2. AS I LAY DYING. dir. James Franco.
(Starring: James Franco, Logan Marshall-Green)

I am a huge fan of James Franco’s. I am a huge fan of William Faulkner. I will most likely be a huge fan of this film. After reading Franco’s post on Vice magazine defending Luhrmann’s recent adaptation of The Great Gatsby, it is proven that Franco is in complete confidence of the requirements needed in order to make a classic novel to film adaptation successful. There needs to be no more further explanation for my wanting to see this film. I’m excited by every project that Franco gets involved in, and I don’t think this film will disappoint me.

3. THE BLING RING. dir. Sofia Coppola.
(Starring: Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson)

With a father who directed such iconic films as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, filmmaking must be a supplement for blood in Coppola’s body. Establishing herself over the past few years as a hopeful director, The Bling Ring seems to take an interesting perspective on the more obscene youth culture of America. The film sees Emma Watson once again speaking in that …weird false American accent that was apparent in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I think this film will be different from the two above, in the fact that it seems to be a chick-flick on cocaine, although still thought-provoking and interesting from a film student’s perspective. Sofia Coppola has proved herself before (Note: The Virgin Suicides) and will most likely do it again, and again, just as her father did.

The Bling Ring is out in UK cinemas on July 5th.