May 2013: Best Release

There's green light in our eyes, as The Great Gatsby scoops our award for Best Release in May with flying colours!
Can we really already be halfway through 2013? It turns out that's the case, and with that in mind it's at least promising that we've had such a strong line-up of entertainment releases in the first five months alone. Certainly, it bodes well for the seven (well, six and a half) months ahead that we've got such strong releases setting a benchmark for the releases that are still to come in the second half of the year.

With that in mind, it's The Great Gatsby that bests its competitors to earn our Best Release award for May 2013. Make no mistake, May was an intense month for entertainment, featuring Doctor Who, Game Of Thrones, Elementary, Fast Six, The Hangover Part III and Star Trek Into Darkness amongst a host of other releases, but it was this sensational adaptation of Fitzgerald's literary masterpiece that really stood out like the green light shining on Daisy's pier. Leonardo DiCaprio remains the defining actorial element of the piece, bringing new awe and mystery to an incredibly layered character in ways readers (and viewers) might never have thought possible.

Of course, at the heart of the film's true success lies a single man: Baz Luhrmman. You need only read my review for a fully comprehensive analysis of his directorial strengths on Gatsby, but to summarize, it's his confidence in terms of the novel's visual spectacle, his adaptation of Jazz into the hip-hop music of today and his mastery of placing his cast in the right locations at the right times that really cements his status as a truly groundbreaking director. Moulin Rouge and Romeo & Juliet are both stunning in equal measure, yet to me The Great Gatsby perhaps represents Luhrman's finest hour. It's not the perfect film, but in this writer's mind it's nigh-on the perfect literary film adaptation, and that is saying something.
JANUARY 2013- LES MISERABLES
FEBRUARY 2013- BEING HUMAN: THE TRINITY
MARCH 2013- BIOSHOCK INFINITE
APRIL 2013- GAME OF THRONES: AND NOW HIS WATCH IS ENDED
MAY 2013- THE GREAT GATSBY