“It’s the little indignities that slowly devastate your soul. The ones where your guard is down, and you just expect to dress up, look pretty, and enjoy an evening as a newlywed, or at the Oscars, but instead end up humiliated and snubbed. The ubiquitous racist slap in the face is thinly veiled just beneath the carefully crafted façade. This filthy, highly infectious plague is transforming our nation into one of unwarranted suspicion and anguish inflicted on disenfranchised, voiceless people of color. And now, it is no longer my job to enlighten you. To quote what you so often tell ethnic communities, ‘It’s time for you to step up to the plate, take responsibility, and stop taking what I have earned,’ my integrity, my dignity.”

Call me overly optimistic about the country in which we live (probably more accurate: naive), but even after all that I’ve learned about race relations in America (which is quite a lot), I am still so surprised that people can be overtly racist and feel completely justified. It is incredibly disheartening.

“The vulgarity of Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ is designed to win over the young audience, and it suggests that Luhrmann’s less a filmmaker than a music-video director with endless resources and a stunning absence of taste. When he calms down, however, and concentrates on the characters, he demonstrates an ability with actors that he hasn’t shown in the past.”

Uh oh! I’m hoping this harsh but exceptionally well-written review is just that - harsh. If, however, Denby is not exaggerating, the movie for which we’ve all been waiting impatiently may unfortunately be a disappointment.