2014 Oscar Preview: Best Director

NOMINEES:
- Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
- Alexander Payne (Nebraska)
- David O. Russell (American Hustle)
- Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)
- Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave)

SHOULD BE HERE: Spike Jonze (Her)

Her is one of the best films of the year, and when you make one of the best films of the year, you deserve to get a Best Director nomination. Sure, it's mainly bolstered by Spike Jonze's amazing script, but his script in the wrong hands is easily nominated for a butt load of Razzies. Plus, Jonze deserves a nomination solely for making Joaquin Phoenix lovable and easy to root for.

Trailer Recap: The Wolf Of Wall Street

SONG CHOICE: Kanye West's "Black Skinhead"

Django Unchained had "The Payback" by James Brown. Six months later, Baz Luhrmann tops that by using Jay-Z's section of "No Church In The Wild". A few months later we get Yeezus' himself and his new song "Black Skinhead". Nothing like having Kanye West to hype up your trailer.

The song works perfectly. The tone sets the movie up for an over the top, slightly comically "Goodfellas". The choppiness of the songs works perfectly with the choppiness of the trailer. Plus, nothing like Matthew McConaughey and DiCaprio beating their chests to send the mood off right.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLOT: Horrible

I have absolutely no idea what this movie is about. But do I care? Absolutely not. I get that Leo loves to throw things, and that's pretty much it. I guess DiCaprio is Henry Hill and Jay Gatsby rolled into one. And that's fine by me.

EXCITEMENT LEVEL: Through the roof

DiCaprio + Scorsese + rap music = solid gold.

Even with Shutter Island and The Aviator fresh in my mind, I still wholeheartedly believe that Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio can do no wrong. I have no idea what The Wolf of Wall Street is actually about, but the Kanye song plus this title card:

And this title card:

Mean's I'm all in. 

Are you excited to see The Wolf Of Wall Street?

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How Entourage Is Coming To Life With The Great Gatsby

Baz Luhrmann's (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rogue) trailer of his version of The Great Gatsby was released on Tuesday. You can see the trailer below:



After watching the trailer (which BTW looks AWESOME and as much as I have not enjoyed any of Lurhmann's work sans his song "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" I'm looking forward to Luhmann's version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic) I couldn't help but notice the similarities to Entourage.

I will say right now that if you have not seen any episodes of Entourage then 1) please stop reading and revel in the fact that you saw an exciting trailer and 2) go out and watch the first seven seasons of Entourage (although you can skip seasons 4 and 6 and also stop at season seven because its eighth and final season is awful)

One of my favorite seasons of Entourage was Season 5. Vinny Chase's career is in the toilet and he spends his entire season trying to regain his fame and make an awesome movie. All looks lost and terrible until the very end of the season finale when Martin Scorsese calls Vinny Chase and offers him a part as Nick Carraway in his upcoming movie: Gatsby.

Well, some three odd years later, a new Hollywood version of The Great Gatsby will be released. My first reaction to the news was, "Holy crap, this is life imitating art in relation to Entourage." After watching the trailer, here are the following similarities between what little we know about Gatsby from the scene in Entourage and what we learned from the trailer:

1) Are you sure this film is directed by Buz Luhrmann and is NOT Martin Scorsese?! I mean, this film does star Leonardo DiCaprio and as we all know, Martin Scorsese can not make a film without having DiCaprio nowadays.

2) Instead of Nick Carraway being played by Aquaman (aka Vinny Chase) he is actually being played by Spiderman (aka Tobey Maguire).

3) In Entourage, Martin Scorsese stated that he is adopting the novel into a more modern version. While, Luhrmann's version is certainly not modern and is set in the early 20th century, hot damn does it look like nothing of what F. Scott Fitzgerald envision when he originally wrote his masterpiece.

I can not wait to see his film

NOTE: Here's what little evidence we have of Baz Luhrmann's music career: