What These Character Posters Tell Us About The Great Gatsby

It must be Christmastime because there are now character posters for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby!

Because The Great Gatsby is one of those novels that every high school student in America reads, the character posters operate under the presumption that you know something about the book. So what do I know about The Great Gatsby? Basically, it’s set in New York, there are lavish parties, everyone is drunk, there is a billboard with creepy eyes that is a metaphor for a decaying society, and someone gets run over by a car. (Right? Right.)

As opposed to the many terrible character posters we saw this year, these posters have achieved something rather remarkable. They are slightly highbrow while also being wonderfully over-the-top. What else would you would expect from posters for a Baz Luhrmann movie? (Admire that trippy art-deco Mayan calendar-inspired background!) In sum, these posters are delightfully awful as opposed to tragically awful. Here’s why.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby

Jay Gatsby is supposed to be charming and mysterious. Perhaps he wears a monocle. Here he just looks boring. And while I can appreciate that the tag lines on every poster are excerpts from the novel, this is possibly the worst tagline for Jay Gatsby conceivable. It makes utterly no sense.

Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan

Someone poorly photoshopped Carey Mulligan’s waist and made her look like a flamingo. This is my only comment because I’m still not convinced that Carey Mulligan was the ideal actress to play Daisy Buchanan. Then again, I frequently confuse Daisy Buchanan with Lady Brett Ashley. I might have a difficult time during this movie.

Tobey Maguire as Nick Carroway

Yawn. Just like Nick Carroway.

Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker

I have no recollection of this character. But it is hard for me to find faults with a poster that features the word “tantalizing,” one of my favorite verbs.

Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan

During The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan will take several naps. He might also be a constipated gangster.

Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson

For some reason, I pictured Myrtle Wilson as a dumpy, working class housewife who wore a muumuu. (I passed my English class, I swear.) But thanks to Isla Fisher’s cleavage, sultry stare, and a passage that reads like an excerpt from Fifty Shades of Grey, Myrtle Wilson is one fine lady.