I’m going to make this review relatively short (ha-ha – I don’t think I’m even capable).

I actually saw Beware of Mr Baker before Gatsby with the full intention of only reviewing the latter; however after experiencing the same immense disappointment and the dreaded ‘B’ word (boredom) I thought about how these two films in my view suffered the same fate. They had good hype and good marketing teams, so good in fact that the films could never live up to the hype.

 This was true particularly true of Beware of Mr Baker.  This was a film that piqued my interest when I saw the trailer for it while watching Promised Land. I was so intrigued that I even considered paying (shock horror!) for a special preview ticket with the very subject matter Ginger Baker in attendance for a Q&A. Unfortunately (and later on most fortunately), the gods intervened and I became too busy to attend and I’m kind of thankful that I didn’t because the film was a complete dud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqrigN8jxj8

The documentary, about the infamous Ginger Baker, drummer for Cream and notorious human-hater, is introduced by the filmmaker, Jay Bulger, who explains how he basically lied his way into a job for the Rolling Stone using Ginger Baker as his research project.  After his tenacious ways got him a job there, he was asked by the magazine to make a film about this off-the-wall character. It was all very Almost Famous, one of my favourite films of all time, but instead of feeling hopeful, about this film’s similarities in its origin story, alarm bells started to ring as I just felt something was off. And the thing that was off, besides the whole documentary, was the director himself, or rather his ego. His ego permeates throughout the film to the extent that I felt I learnt more about the flashy trends this guy had learnt about documentary filmmaking rather than about the subject of matter at hand.

 Yes we get the basics of a biographical documentary, the birth, youth general life milestones and with Ginger Baker, you get the rock and roll exploits and his moves to different countries including famously Nigeria during the 70s, Italy and the United States to his current residence South Africa. Oh and some obligatory scenes of Ginger being occasionally cantankerous. And that’s about it.

 Literally that is it…this is what you get about such a larger than life notorious self-styled enfant terrible, I hear you cry?

You’ll have to speak to the filmmaker I suppose. A filmmaker who goes to such lengths to explain how he lived with Baker but it seems like he didn’t bloody speak to him. Months of staying with this man, this is what you got?

 There is no exploration or theory into why Baker is the way he is, no attempt to look at why he mistreated his first wife and children. Why or how he supposedly thrown out of certain countries (I know Americans are patriotic but I sure as hell don’t think they would throw someone out of the country for having a tantrum on a local radio station about his horse handler’s visa not being renewed. But yes the documentary makes it seems like that’s the very reason).

 It also seems like everyone he interviewed either didn’t know him or rather didn’t want to know him, or in fact talk about him (Eric Clapton) there is perpetual vagueness and a shallowness (this word is going to be pop up a few more times in this double review) that began to grate after a while. It wasn’t like Ginger Baker’s that big of an enigma it was more like the film was being heavily manipulated to present him as one or as some mythical Rock God that us mere humans could never fathom to understand, therefore any abhorrent behaviour is excusable, because he’s just so talented.

What I didn’t understand is how this film won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW.

 One example of the ludicrous misjudged thinking of this film that I have to laugh at or else I will have no choice but to cry is a repeated animation sequence depicting Baker’s growing affinity with music and the drums. This animation piece involves a ship with CHAINED UP AFRICAN SLAVES rowing to the beat of an African drum, with Baker AS ONE OF THE SLAVES.  Because we all know that for one to love some aspect of African culture means one is practically African. And what’s more African than slavery! Brother you understand!

 This film was ignorant and even worse lazy. As I rushed out without bothering to sit through the “outtakes” I thought about how the trailer seemed to be for a different film. A much better film. Why couldn’t I have watched that? The film I was treated to was thin, superficial and broke a cardinal rule of documentary filmmaking, leaving the office with the same knowledge of the subject matter as when they went in. What’s the point in that?

 

Final Thoughts for Beware Mr Baker…

This is a film I wouldn’t recommend. It’s a vanity project on behalf of the filmmaker that I can’t fathom will appeal to anyone. Newbies to the history of Cream and Mr Baker won’t learn much and fans of Cream and Mr Baker would undoubtedly be more informed about the man than this film.  I don’t know whether to mark the film as an apt tribute to a horrible man or a dishonest inferior piece about a complex figure. Either way I feel I given enough of my time on it.

The Great Gatsby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaBVLhcHcc0

This is a film that I disliked for similar reasons as to Beware of Mr Baker but not as vehemently. What makes this different from the above film is that it didn’t really disappoint me in that I wasn’t expecting to like it in the first place. When it comes to Baz Luhrmann, he really is the marmite of filmmaking, you either love what he’s about or you don’t. While I love Strictly Ballroom (was a household favourite growing up) and was quite taken by Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge I remember to be a real party killer (seriously, we had it at a sleepover and by the end of it, three people had nodded off to sleep, and three others were ganging up on the only person (not me) to have not minded it. So much was the animosity towards the film, there were discussions about shunning this person who had found it just ok) and Australia I gave the widest berth.  So when I say a trailer for The Great Gatsby an age ago, I had three thoughts

 1)   1) Wow Leo looks good.

2)   2) Tobey Maguire never ages. He’s becoming our generation’s Matthew Broderick. His inability to age will only get creepier

3)   3) This is very Moulin Rouge-y. I’m very worried.

 So I wasn’t really that hyped about seeing it. But at the same time I was admittedly curious. (Damn my curiosity). I was fully prepared to have The Great Gatsby story (the book I read a few years ago and remember liking) be given a monstrous, vulgar Baz Luhrmann makeover and I was going to hate it.

You know what? I did hate it.

 But not for the reasons listed above.

 I hated it, well actually hate is too strong a reaction, the film was so mundane that I really only felt ambivalence.  If there is anything to hate is a film causing that feeling because I hate to be bored while watching a movie. And this was boring.

 The flashy direction, sets, colours and design wants to permeate the whole film. However, I don’t think it wholly succeeds. Luhrmann’s films are synonymous with rich detail extravagant sets and flashy schizophrenic directing and cutting that I felt sometimes worked (Romeo and Juliet) and sometimes didn’t (Moulin Rouge). The saturated eye candy if you will is all classic Luhrmann or so I thought.

Apart from a few scenes and shots (the introduction of Carey Mulligan’s Daisy Buchanan comes to mind) classic Luhrmann seems absent. There seems a deliberate holding back which results in large parts of the film feeling really rather flat. It was like the production blew its entire budget on some scenes and was left to try and create a similar sense of grandeur with a no budget on others.  This was never more evident than in some of the party scenes that felt like they had squeezed lots of people into a tiny room to make it look like the party of the century where everybody’s at, even though it’s quite obvious there’s are only 50 or so people in attendance.

 Beyond the flatness is the shallowness of the film, which proved to be the biggest issue I had with it. I know that the film is set in a particularly decadent period of America but this superficiality and bottomless, empty excess should not be in the script. And there lies the problem, because as good as the performances were (and they were overall good) nothing could be done to save the shallowness of characterisation and script. While at the heart of the novel is an enduring love story and look at the human condition hidden under all those shows of aloofness towards other people and their lavish surroundings, the film attempts to attempts to do the same and finds there’s no pulse.

 Despite the length of time with these characters and the endless talking (and there is an inordinate amount considering the novel is relatively short) the characters are still more one-dimensional caricatures rather than fully realised characters from the book and therefore I felt nothing towards them or what happened to them.  Everything about the film seemed unreal and not in a fantastical fairy tale sense that I would be more than happy to immerse myself in, let’s say The Wizard of Oz, but more in an incredibly fake sense. Everything looked like it had been filmed either on a stage or in front of a green screen that only seemed to heighten the sense of emptiness in the film.

Just to touch briefly on the acting. Despite the thinness it seems of material, the acting was solid. I noted that Carey Mulligan who I had my reservations on seemed comfortable and up to the task, handling her accent very well, a great improvement from the shakiness of Shame. She renewed my faith in her.

Leonardo Dicaprio once again put in a heartfelt performance, rising to the occasion expertly in the more dramatic scenes. I also have to mention Joel Edgerton who surprised me in his portrayal of the very one-dimensionally written Tom Buchanan. Although looking at his filmography, I shouldn’t be all that surprised because he’s always given reliable solid performances in the films I have seen. Check him out in Zero Dark Thirty, Kinky Boots and Animal Kingdom.

Final Thoughts on The Great Gatsby…

Finally the best film adaptation of The Great Gatsby!

Nope.  Not by a long shot. Will there ever be one, nobody knows. Maybe The Great Gatsby will fall into the cannon of the “The Great Unfilmmable”. Who knows? What I know is that I didn’t like this version. It didn’t anger me as much as Moulin Rouge but neither is it a film I would rush to see again, nor wholly recommend.  It’s that damn ambivalence making its presence felt!

But buy the soundtrack. That’s probably the best thing about it.

Final Final Thoughts…

It has not been a great couple of weeks for my cinema adventures I have to say.  I had hoped at best I might be pleasantly surprised by at least one but alas I was served only disappointment and boredom (with a splash of anger, looking at you Mr Baker filmmakers).

I’ll be on a bit of a film review breather over the next couple of weeks as I head to the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival. I’m uber excited will endeavour to bring back some amazing recommendations in the documentary stratosphere.

Until then! Peace!