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Let's Rush To Judgment: Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' In 3-D

This week, we got our first look at the trailer for The Great Gatsby, the Baz Luhrmann 3-D extravaganza starring Tobey Maguire as Nick, Carey Mulligan as Daisy, and Leonardo DiCaprio as ... well, you know. It will come out at Christmas, so that gives us more than six months to make semi-informed predictions about its quality.

There's an obvious fit between the visual circuses Luhrmann has put on in films including Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet and the ultra-stylish world of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. It makes sense that he would be drawn to the opportunity to adapt a book about lavish parties, and the parties in the trailer do indeed look pretty lavish. Mission accomplished!

There's some gorgeous stuff here: the dive into the pool, the glimpse of a bespectacled face that brings to mind both elements of the book and the iconic imagery on the cover, and of course, the yellow car. (I read this book a long, long time ago, and even I remember that.)

What do you think? Oscar contender? Legendary flop? Beautiful but terrifying? Or did you, like me, mostly think, "Wow, it's been a while since I watched Tobey Maguire in anything where he wasn't Spider-Man"?

And most of all, WHERE IS THE 3-D LITTLE WOMEN? (Kidding.) (Mostly.)

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.

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