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| Leonardo DiCaprio fronting one of the run-amok debaucheries of Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street |
Master filmmaker Martin Scorsese's (Taxi Driver (1976)) The Wolf of Wall Street was 'the-talk-of-the-town', when it came out and spurred controversy in December 2013.
The film tells the true story of Jordan Belfort, an ambitious kid with a singular dream about being rich, - super-rich, - who goes to Wall Street and accomplishes his dream by great salesmanship skills and elaborate fraud and money-laundering that finally gets him imprisoned (for a little while) for his crimes.
Wolf's madness of excess and depravity really comes alive a bit into the film, when Howlin' Wolf's Smokestack Lightning plays distorted at an office celebration. The film has been likened to Scorsese's great gangster films (namely Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995)), and these are appropriate comparisons. Paradoxically, people seem more outraged with the thugs of Wolf than they have done with the gangsters. Those guys murdered people. The guys in Wolf 'merely' (mostly) rob more or less gullible people, and many of them rich people. It's still wrong, of course, but if you want a moralist movie, or it provokes you to see drug-taking and hearing and seeing 'fuck', then Scorsese didn't make the film for you. - Wolf isn't for everyone, (and certainly isn't for kids or young teenagers.)
That said, the film is obscene. The amount of expletives is unparalleled, and the behavior is all the more revolting because it is sanctioned by society. Only in the end does Belfort go to jail, and not for that long. His fraudulently acquired wealth and ruthlessness seems to be condoned by society by and large.
The film also doesn't seek to hide the upsetting facts of Belfort's case; instead it pushes them to the forefront, SPOILER as exemplified in its ending, when we are confronted with the fact that Belfort today is free and makes new money for himself by fooling the gullible with get-rich-quick motivational speeches.
Scorsese and screenwriter Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire (2010-13)) are bold here, in confronting us with the reality that our capitalist system sometimes - maybe often - makes filthy rich heroes out of terrible people.
Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic (1997)) is absolutely amazing as Belfort. He delivers the sales pitches like a first rate orator, keeps the frenzied energy of Belfort the drug addict alive and throws himself head-long into the despicable parts of the man's life as well. He is Oscar nominated for the 4th time as an actor for his job here, and I really think he deserves the award this time.
Jonah Hill (Superbad (2007)) is also nominated for his turn as Belfort's partner in crime Donnie Azoff, and he's really something as well. The film is funny as hell, and it is also described as a black comedy various places, and Hill vouches for a lot of these absurdly funny moments.
Wolf has countless other wonderful performances, from Matthew McConaughey (Mud (2013)) as a brief mentor in the 1st act, to great director Rob Reiner (Stand By Me (1986)) as Belfort's irreverent, temperamental dad 'Mad' Max; Jon Favreau, P.J. Byrne (Horrible Bosses (2011)) as a co-conspirator with a hilarious hairpiece, Joanna Lumley (James and the Giant Peach (1996)) as English aunt Emma and Aussie Margot Robbie (About Time (2013)) as Belfort's wife.
The film is full of crazy scenes, and I liked that it took its time to tell its story; SPOILER the Quaalude- and yacht-wrecking scenes won't be forgotten, but also 'smaller' scenes like FBI agent Denham's first visit to Belfort on his yacht is extremely well-played and -paced. Scorsese/Winter/regular editor Thelma Schoonmaker have incredible command of a scene, - and Wolf has many great ones. Much of the film's portrayal of drug-taking, the mentality of 'functional' drug addicts and the sheer glee they have for drugs simply couldn't have been shown like this if is wasn't because Scorsese used to be one himself: His days as a coke-head seem to have culminated at the time of New York, New York (1977) - some highly productive years for the master.
Ultimately, though, I find that The Wolf of Wall Street takes a hit because its production is morally dubious in itself. It isn't just what we see portrayed that's unclean, it is also the way it was brought up there for us, which has become clear since the release of the film: From the grotesque salary disparity between DiCaprio (at least 10 mil. $) and Hill (60k $), the fact that Belfort earned at least 1 mil. $ from the rights of the film, which was funded by illegally obtained funds from 1MDB, a developmental body under the Malaysian (!) government, - to the fact that the film inevitably idolize the criminal here, simply because he is in the guise of DiCaprio, probably the world's most envied playboy. How these things all came to be like this we may never know, but they do throw a shade of sin over the whole film.
Related posts:
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Martin Scorsese: The Aviator (2004) - The Grand American Biopic (with DiCaprio)
The Age of Innocense (1993) or, Stayin' IN the pants
Prepare to be outraged and have A LOT of fun! Go see The Wolf of Wall Street right now! It's one of the greatest films in theaters at the moment, and it's a blast. See the trailer here
Budget: 100 mil. $
Box office: 389.6 mil. $ and most of it out of the US, where it opened no. 5
= Big hit
What do you think of Wolf of Wall Street?
Do you agree that there's a lot of bullshit surrounding this film, and that it's really a great film?
Why/why not?
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