So I’m writing a blog about films and TV shows now. Basically, I just saw The Great Gatsby trailer and wanted to have a quick talk about it. As there was no-one convenient around, I thought I’d send it out in to the great void of the interwebs.

The first thing that you may wish to note (notepads not provided) is that I am a massive Leonardo DiCaprio fan. I caught J.Edgar on a flight out to New York a couple of weeks ago and thought that overall it was pretty average. The prosthetics really distracted from the storytelling, especially with the copious amounts of cutting between the prosthesis-laden ‘present day’ and moments in J.Edgar’s past. However, DiCaprio’s acting ability still manages to shine through. He’s been pretty good in almost all of his work since Gangs Of New York. So, as the initiated will have gathered, I’m pretty excited to see him have a go at Gatsby. This is despite everyone else I have spoken to on the subject being against it. My mother, in particular, was not amused. Upon seeing him appear in the trailer she made a noise somewhere between a banshee dying and a squirrel throwing up.

At this point I can tell what you’re all thinking: ‘Enough already with the Leo, I wanna hear about Tobey Maguire!’ All I can tell you about him is that before Spiderman 3 I was fairly indifferent to him. He had an average, gecko on Ritalin kind of appeal. Then this happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4tDbEuMxys

Spiderman and Tobey Maguire were, from that moment on, completely dead to me. I shall say nothing more about either of them.

Carey Mulligan, on the other hand, is incredibly talented. Seeing her and DiCaprio starring next to each other is an incredibly exciting prospect, a more beautiful version of Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie perhaps. Just as importantly, I think she’s the perfect fit to play Daisy. She has the ability to manipulate while maintaining a look of perfect innocence that many others have aimed for and almost all have fallen short.

Baz Luhrman is the great unknown quantity in all of this. He’s directed some first rate poop like ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Australia’, but ‘Romeo+Juliet’ was, at the very least, a good effort. His output to date has all been incredibly well shot and has maintained a vivid and coherent aesthetic. Is Luhrman an upmarket Zack Snyder, utterly reliant on his source material to produce anything of any worth? I don’t know, but I do like the occasional bit of footage of a yellow car tearing around New York in the 20’s.