Baz Luhrmann, director ofMoulin Rouge!andThe Great Gatsby, is a polarizing entertainer.
Some thrill to his manic pop romanticism and heady, dizzying storytelling.
Others see sound and fury, signifying nothing but a headache.
Credit: Netflix
He brings his brand of much muchness to television withThe Get Down, and the timing couldnt be better.
Ryan MurphysThe People v. O.J.
Simpsonwas a smash success.
Martin ScorsesesVinylwas a shocking failure.Mr.
RobotandPreacher, both audaciously stylish, have dazzled with showstopping sequences, but taxed us with length.
So is going to bed before midnight.
The place and time is the Bronx in the 70s, a wasteland of desperate, burning squalor.
Ezekiel (Justice Smith) is a tragedy-damaged orphan, talented with words and rhyme but lacking direction.
He moons over Mylene (Herizen Guardiola), an aspiring disco queen.
Guiding her destiny: Uncle Francisco (Jimmy Smits), an oily politico bent on rebuilding the Bronx.
hip-hop), scratching and sampling existing records sorry, rekkids.
Luhrmanns 90-minute pilot is Luhrmann to the max: exciting and messy, sublime and cornball.
The camera is restless, the editing is frenetic, the music is electric, the emotions are huge.
His aesthetic appropriates the formative influences of street culture comic books, kung fu, blaxploitation flicks.
In a year of indulgence,The Get Downultimately suffers by not having enough of it.
Understandable, but it makes for a jolting, sobering crash.
The climactic rap battle is so damn energizing, you might want to break-dance.
With more consistently winning style and substance,The Get Downcould be deeply groovy.B
