REVIEW: ‘Gatsby’ Is an Anagram for ‘Trashy,’ Somehow

[The Great Gatsby] is a purely creative work — not trashy imaginings as in my stories but the sustained imagination of a sincere and yet radiant world.”

—F. Scott Fitzgerald

If only Baz Luhrmann had taken the time to go to Wikipedia to read those lines in the abridged history of the book, maybe he would have resisted serving up the two hours and twenty minutes of ‘trashy imaginings’ that his adaptation is.

I was dragged into seeing this despite year-old misgivings (thanks to the garish trailer) by dueling reviews from entertainment writers I admire, Marlow Stern of The Daily Beast and Dana Stevens from Slate. Stern began his review