The Wolf of Wall Street
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Terence Winter, based on the book by Jordan Belfort
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Joe Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, Cristin Milioti, Christine Ebersole, Shea Whigham, P.J. Byrne, Kenneth Choi, Brian Sacca, Henry Zebrowski, Ethan Suplee, Jake Hoffman, Aya Cash, Fran Lebowitz
Biography/Comedy/Crime/Drama - 180 min
Written by: Terence Winter, based on the book by Jordan Belfort
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Joe Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, Cristin Milioti, Christine Ebersole, Shea Whigham, P.J. Byrne, Kenneth Choi, Brian Sacca, Henry Zebrowski, Ethan Suplee, Jake Hoffman, Aya Cash, Fran Lebowitz
Biography/Comedy/Crime/Drama - 180 min
One of cinema’s sleaziest characters from the past 30 years is Wall Street’s Gordon Gecko. His underhanded business tactics, loose morals, and lack of most of the basic human emotions labeled him and his fellow financial barons as greedy hucksters to most of us or sage role models for today’s stockbroker class. The Wolf of Wall Street’s Jordon Belfort makes Gordon Gecko look like a choirboy in comparison. Martin Scorsese’s new three hour film charting Belfort’s rise and fall is one of the year’s most polarizing movies; you will either love it, hate it, or like me, spend most of your time wondering whether The Wolf of Wall Street is one of the year’s best films or an over-produced, over-sized debacle.
Are all the drugs, women, and illegal business practices that shoot Jordan Belfort’s income to the moon a satire of the greedy businessman? Or are the depictions of the nonstop parties and endless debauchery a showcase and celebration of one group’s proclivities? I suspect Scorsese is not glorifying the actions performed on screen but he is ready and willing to make them appear spectacular and the envy of a certain kind of individual.
Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) makes his money by talking up penny stocks to the working class. He gets a 50% commission when the suckers bite and this bankrolls his own firm and the ability to hire more and more sleazy con men aka stockbrokers who have no interest in investing their clients’ money for stable returns. They will lie to, swindle, and steal from anybody who is unfortunate enough to buy into what they are pitching over the phone using every high-pressure sales tactic known to man.
The ins and outs of Wall Street scams are the background though. The entire foreground is DiCaprio. He chews up every scene frequently talking directly to us staring into the camera or explaining just how nefarious and over-the-top the actions at this particular party were through voiceover. Stock IPOs, short selling, and derivatives can be complicated dialogue so Scorsese and DiCaprio skip over that to get to the good stuff: midget throwing, the study and classification of call girls, and the dozen or so variations of Belfort’s daily intake of illegal narcotics.
The Wolf of Wall Street is Scorsese’s most close-up examination of an individual since Henry Hill in Goodfellas. We also had Henry’s voiceover to guide us through his rise in the mob but Belfort’s voiceover is more immediate and in your face. He wants you to envy his sins. Here is why the film is so divisive. There are very few mentions on screen of Jordon Belfort’s victims. The blue-collar guy who loses all his money in a scam or the stockbroker who cannot handle the life and therefore takes his own are scarcely referred to whatsoever. Yet in Belfort’s real life, they probably were thought of even less.
Along for the roller coaster ride of mayhem is Belfort’s right-hand man Donnie (Jonah Hill) with a monster set of over-sized teeth and a Napoleon complex to make up for them. Jonah Hill has as much fun with Donnie as he will ever have for the rest of his career. The majority of the women in The Wolf of Wall Street are throwaways, just as they probably were in Belfort’s real life. Belfort’s first wife disappears almost as soon as he meets the very blonde and stereotypical soon to be trophy second wife, Namoi (Margot Robbie), who he affectionately refers to as the Duchess of Bay Ridge.
Based on Jordan Belfort’s autobiography, The Wolf of Wall Street does not feel like it uses up its entire three hours, but it is hard to believe they had to cut it down from the original four hour running time. The pace is frenetic, the actions deplorable, and the speeches by DiCaprio is some of the best acting he has ever done. Enjoy Matthew McConaughey’s scene stealing few minutes on screen, what too many Quaaludes do to your motor skills, and the fancy camera work of another Scorsese, not quite masterpiece, but above average biography? Comedy/Drama? There is no easy label to attach to The Wolf of Wall Street other than leave the kids at home when you go see this one.
Are all the drugs, women, and illegal business practices that shoot Jordan Belfort’s income to the moon a satire of the greedy businessman? Or are the depictions of the nonstop parties and endless debauchery a showcase and celebration of one group’s proclivities? I suspect Scorsese is not glorifying the actions performed on screen but he is ready and willing to make them appear spectacular and the envy of a certain kind of individual.
Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) makes his money by talking up penny stocks to the working class. He gets a 50% commission when the suckers bite and this bankrolls his own firm and the ability to hire more and more sleazy con men aka stockbrokers who have no interest in investing their clients’ money for stable returns. They will lie to, swindle, and steal from anybody who is unfortunate enough to buy into what they are pitching over the phone using every high-pressure sales tactic known to man.
The ins and outs of Wall Street scams are the background though. The entire foreground is DiCaprio. He chews up every scene frequently talking directly to us staring into the camera or explaining just how nefarious and over-the-top the actions at this particular party were through voiceover. Stock IPOs, short selling, and derivatives can be complicated dialogue so Scorsese and DiCaprio skip over that to get to the good stuff: midget throwing, the study and classification of call girls, and the dozen or so variations of Belfort’s daily intake of illegal narcotics.
The Wolf of Wall Street is Scorsese’s most close-up examination of an individual since Henry Hill in Goodfellas. We also had Henry’s voiceover to guide us through his rise in the mob but Belfort’s voiceover is more immediate and in your face. He wants you to envy his sins. Here is why the film is so divisive. There are very few mentions on screen of Jordon Belfort’s victims. The blue-collar guy who loses all his money in a scam or the stockbroker who cannot handle the life and therefore takes his own are scarcely referred to whatsoever. Yet in Belfort’s real life, they probably were thought of even less.
Along for the roller coaster ride of mayhem is Belfort’s right-hand man Donnie (Jonah Hill) with a monster set of over-sized teeth and a Napoleon complex to make up for them. Jonah Hill has as much fun with Donnie as he will ever have for the rest of his career. The majority of the women in The Wolf of Wall Street are throwaways, just as they probably were in Belfort’s real life. Belfort’s first wife disappears almost as soon as he meets the very blonde and stereotypical soon to be trophy second wife, Namoi (Margot Robbie), who he affectionately refers to as the Duchess of Bay Ridge.
Based on Jordan Belfort’s autobiography, The Wolf of Wall Street does not feel like it uses up its entire three hours, but it is hard to believe they had to cut it down from the original four hour running time. The pace is frenetic, the actions deplorable, and the speeches by DiCaprio is some of the best acting he has ever done. Enjoy Matthew McConaughey’s scene stealing few minutes on screen, what too many Quaaludes do to your motor skills, and the fancy camera work of another Scorsese, not quite masterpiece, but above average biography? Comedy/Drama? There is no easy label to attach to The Wolf of Wall Street other than leave the kids at home when you go see this one.
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