Oh my God, what a classic. I wish Baz Luhrmann would make another film like this, funny and heartfelt and warty and quirky, instead of the opulent nothingness that was The Great Gatsby. That movie had all of the visual verve and style of Strictly Ballroom and 0% of its spirit. It felt like a cold, dead thing in comparison to this. Is that unfair? I don't know, maybe. When I watch this film and see how deftly Lurhmann switches between tragic family history/societal pressures and hilarious parody/character work, and I remember how insane but still grounded Moulin Rouge was, or even how much I like Romeo + Juliet despite itself (let's not talk about Australia), I just don't understand what happened in The Great Gatsby.
Anyway! Ending the rant there, I'll save that for another day. This is a great film, full of perfect montages and zany Australian-ness and so much amazing everything. Between this and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert you may be able to begin ascertaining my idea of a perfect film. It's gotta have sequins, it's gotta have dancing, it's gotta have heart, it's gotta have ultra-weird flashback sequences, and it's gotta have near-unintelligible Australian accents. But still: watch this for the sheer tonnage of sequins/feathers/eye shadow alone. And then rewatch it for the sweet love story. And then one more time for the fantastic cinematography and dancing. And then just one more time, for shits and giggles.
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