The Wolf of Wall Street Review
Proof positive that there can be too much of a good thing.
Honestly I was going to skip this one but from what I have hear and read needed to see it to maintain my credibility as a reviewer (haw!). Based on the trailers alone it looked to have three things in the top 1/3rd of the Wikipedia sized list of my personal pet peeves: disgusting and ostentatious displays of wealth, guys who get rich by doing no real work, and bad people who fail to get their what they deserve. But imagine my surprise when the thing that bugged me the most was that this opus went three freaking hours!
Don’t get me wrong. This movie is an excellent candidate for my best movie of the year. Martin Scorsese is a true genius and each scene lovingly crafted with flair and edge. Leonardo Di Caprio hasn’t been better IMO and is making up for ground lost on The Great Gatsby. It’s just that once we have established that all of the characters are degenerate, self indulgent, drug addicted scumbags do we really need to see that point reinforced 400 times? 
Trust me, if you have seen one cocaine and hooker party you have pretty much seen them all. It’s not like the next orgy scene was going to reveal another facet of Leonardo’s character that until then had gone unremarked. I have a deep love of pumpkin pie but if I had to eat it continuously for 180 minutes my enjoyment of the experience might pale a little.
Cocaine Fiends image comes courtesy of the Movie T Shirt category.
Plus all the other things I expected to bug me about this film did indeed bug me like a peanut butter and cockroach sandwich. Di Caprio’s character spends money like water and talks about all the poor people (like me) who don’t have moral flexibility it takes to rip people off like we are some kind of idiots. He and his friends get rich by building nothing, doing nothing, and taking drugs and sleazy sex on a daily basis. There is a comeuppance of sorts, but it is so flaccid and uneventful in terms of a life lesson that it might not have even been included.
Scorsese has a love of the criminal lifestyle that translates into no real repercussions for any of his criminal characters. Henry Hill might bitch about being an ordinary schnook, but at least he wasn’t rotting in prison. This movie is extremely similar to Goodfellas, but that is more of an endorsement than a criticism. I love that movies. Scorsese also seems to have some kind of bromance or appreciation of Leonardo Di Caprio. Shutter Island, the Aviator, the Departed, Gangs of New York; if Leonardo didn’t knock it out of the park every time I would say seeing him in a Scorsese film is getting tired. Fortunately he did indeed kill it this time.
SPOILER ALERT In the end the thing that is so off putting for me is the whole moral ambiguity. Leonardo has described this film as “a documentary of a scumbag” and indeed it is. However, it really fails to point out any potential issues with living the scumbag lifestyle. If you are hoping to raise your children to be good people and not do drugs, con money out of people, cheat on their spouses, hire prostitutes on a regular basis, hit women, drive while under the influence, abduct their children, bribe public officials, rat out on their friends, pay cops to beat people up, and encourage everyone else around them to do the same don’t let them see this film. All this behavior would be acceptable in a movie character who pays for his sins but by the end of the film he does three years in Club Fed and gets out still rich and getting richer teaching other people how to be scumbags. Meanwhile the honest hard working FBI agent he mocked about riding home on a stinking subway is shown riding home on a stinking subway. The injustice irks me.
The story is of real life hustler Jordan Belfort (Leonardo Di Caprio-Titanic, Inception, Shutter Island) as he climbs up from being a lower class child through the trenches of Wall Street to become a massive millionaire and douchebag. The film is told in a very Goodfellas style with Jordan breaking in periodically with an expository monolog rather than action or dialog to run the story along (for the record, frequent readers will recall me bitching about monologs in films in the past. However it works extremely well in this film. Scorsese uses it as a tool, not a lazy replacement for some writing or filming). He gets on board with a big company but on his first day as a licensed broker the stock market falls apart and he is laid off. He hires on with a small Long Island firm that specializes in penny stock and shortly realizes that the commissions for penny stocks is tremendously higher than Blue Chips (look at me talking like I know what the hell a stock even is).
He meets Donny Azoff (Jonah Hill-21 Jump Street, Moneyball, This is the End), a local nebbish and hires him to form his own firm in an old auto mechanics garage. He hires a bunch of his old cronies to work with him (Jon Favreau-Iron Man, Swingers, Cowboys and Aliens)(Jon Bernthal-the Walking Dead, Snitch, The Ghost)(P.J.Byrne-Evan Almighty, Horrible Bosses, Final Destination 5)(Kenneth Choi-Red Dawn, the Terminal, Walk the Talk). He trains them to be high pressure sales people and they start pulling in big bucks.
At that part the fun starts up and goes to extremes that would offend Caligula. The next hour and a half is like watching Animal House with more money and less behavior governors. Meanwhile Belforts company catches the eye of easily fooled SEC officials and a not so easy to fool FBI agent Agent Denham (Kyle Chandler-Argo, Friday Night Lights, Zero Dark Thirty). He has a meeting with Belfort where Belfort proves what a top notch ass he is.
At that point the film more or less becomes a funnier Leaving Las Vegas. Belfort does every stupid move possible to wreck his life. SPOILER ALERT His wife Naomi (and my dream wife. She has the looks that could launch 1,000 very horny ships. Margot Robbie-Pan Am, About Time, Neighbors) ends up leaving him. He wrecks his car and then turns around and rats out the very friends who stood by him and actively tried to help him. In the end he does some very soft, short time and becomes a minor celebrity.
The stars.
I know I say a lot of movies have good acting, but the acting in this film was truly exceptional. Leonardo Di Caprio nailed it, as did all the other actors. I especially want to give props to Jonah Hill. That kid can act. Three stars. Direction was flawless. Each scene was like a visual, audio, and mental diamond of perfect clarity. A gem, in other words. Two stars. Martin Scorsese really, really knows how to build characters and get the audience involved with them. One star. All the exceptional camera work you would expect from one of his films. One star. OMG is Margot beautiful, and she and about 100 other women in this film get naked a lot. This film might have gone 180 minutes but it seems like half of that was with hot naked women on the screen. Thank you for understanding that if you are going to get an R rating anyway you might as well bury the needle. Two stars. Based on a true story. One star. Overall a tremendously worthwhile experience. Three stars. Total: thirteen stars.
The black holes.
I know I will end up with another hot coal shoved up my bottom when I get to movie reviewer hell (or they’ll just force me to watch Jack and Jill again. I think I’d prefer the hot coal) for even suggestion Martin Scorsese do anything different, but honestly he could have use his editing pruning shears more often. This film really could have had 30-45 minutes trimmed without losing any of its force or power. This is what Executive Producers are supposed to be for, but no one would say anything to Mr. Scorsese. One black hole. I personally wanted to see Belfort rot in prison and write this memoir from a cell. The life of excess without repercussions were not only a horrible life lesson but lessened the impact of all the bad behavior. A crime in a film has much more impact if you know the character committing it is seriously risking his life and/or freedom, and once it is established that all Belfort was getting was a slap on the wrist all the tension built up over 150 minutes of film kind of drained away. One black hole. I got used to it fairly soon but Leonardo was rocking a Long Island wise guy accent that kind of ground on me. It was the only part of the film that felt fake. One black hole. Total: three black holes.
A grand total of 10 stars, a very good score for me. This is definitely in my top three for the year and might take overall (I’m working on my end of year recap and ranking). Should you see it? Yes, absolutely. The visuals do not demand a theater but to support good films you should go. Date movie? Honestly no. Too many naked hookers, dysfunctional relationships, and STDs to make a girl feel comfortable getting naked with you. Take her to see something a little more innocuous. Bathroom break? This is an important one as you will need it by the end of the three hours (plus some kind of dopey extended trailer for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Is it really necessary to run your 12 minute segment in addition to all the other trailers, popcorn ads, and interminable turn of your cell phone notices on top of a three hour movie?). Unfortunately there aren’t any scenes readily dismissible. I suppose the sex scene towards the end of the movie after Belfort is busted is probably your best bet. Margot keeps all her clothes on for this one (damn the luck) and the result is reiterated over the next ten minutes. Hurry back though.
Thanks for reading. I just have one more 2013 movie to see (Grudge Match. I thought I would round out 2013 on a low note) and then I will do my top and bottom movies. Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu. Comments on this film or my review can be left her while off topic suggestions or questions can be emailed to [email protected]. Have a great night. Talk to you soon.
Dave
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