Dylan and Jake Comment on “The Great Gatsby” Trailer
Epaulet crew members Dylan and Jake don’t always share the same taste. These differences in opinion are usually over film or music. A recent example was their divergent reactions to the somewhat newly-released trailer for Baz Luhrman’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Upon viewing this trailer, their faces were like a disparate pair of drama masks—one exalted, the other dismantled. Here are their reactions:
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JAKE: I suppose it’s only right that the trailer starts off with a Kanye West/Jay-Z song, because let’s be real here, this is not the kind of party that any of us imagined Gatsby would be having. No, this is some full-blown, 40/40 club on a Friday night, Cristal bottle’s popping, dancer’s standing on tables sort of affair. Truthfully, I couldn’t be happier. I mean if I’m gonna see some wild prohibition era parties, they better be totally over the top. And knowing Baz Luhrman, I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg, I’m fully expecting some people swinging from chandeliers, or some fire breathing dragons, or at least a swimming pool full of gin.
DYLAN: Ignoring everything except for one thing, I do see something legitimately awesome: a zebra in a fountain. That zebra is the only character with which I can identify in this trailer. I imagine the confusion and distaste that I feel while watching this trailer is similar to the experience of a displaced zebra bucking in a booze and bodily fluid filled fountain in the middle of a rave. Baz, you should have used this zebra to remake Au Hasard Balthazar instead. That could have accidentally passed through the stargate of stupidity and ended up on the other side, as opposed to perpetually, asymptotically, approaching the limit of idiocy without ever crossing it.
JAKE: This is the moment in the trailer where I got a bit lost. Why is Gatsby smiling, he’s ruining all his nicely pressed shirts?! I get it, he’s wealthy, but come on, throwing your shirts, that’s just nonsensical. If they’re wrinkled, then how will people know you’re rich? Once I saw this scene, I couldn’t stop worrying about those poor shirts, strewn about the floor. For me, this is the true dilemma of Gatsby, why is no one asking about the shirts?! But, I suppose in the end that speaks more about my personal obsessive compulsiveness then the movie itself. Hey, if you got Gatsby, what’s a few shirts, and I suppose there are maids to clean it up after all.
DYLAN: A good trick of cinema is when no characters say anything of any meaning, thereby forcing the audience to supply their own to an action. We are compelled to pressurize a constantly deflating story. For me, this shirt-tossing ritual is Gatsby’s sincerest form of flirtation. These pressed, pastel “I love-you-nots” scream, “I am form without substance!” and Leo nails it.
JAKE: Regardless of whether or not the movie ends up being worth its salt, one thing is for certain after seeing this trailer, Great Gatsby will certainly have a visible impact on men’s style in the year to come. In the two and a half minutes of this trailer alone, I’ve seen cream colored tuxedos, collar pins, three-piece suits, satin peak lapels, fedoras, pinstriped blazers, and other throwback designs that I’m sure countless designers will emulate in the next few seasons.
DYLAN: In some seriousness, though, the costume design does look pretty outstanding. I can’t wait to see what Gatsby gets buried in. Maybe they’ll wrangle his body into all the suits he wears throughout the film like one of those time-lapse world-record tee-shirt wearing videos, and the only mourner at his famously poorly attended funeral will be his fountain zebra. I would love that movie with all the marrow in my bones.
