Wednesday, 12 February 2014

The Wolf of Wall Street - Drugs, money, sex and even more drugs




This movie tells the story of Jordan Belfort, a young Wall Street broker that gets involved in drugs, money, sex and even more drugs during the 90's. In his tenure trading (and stealing), Jordan marries, divorces, does drugs, marries again, does even more drugs, makes solid friendships, and does a lot more drugs.  Scorsese puts together an all-star cast to inhabit these beings that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Bernthal, and Kyle Chandler. All of whom seem to be having the time of their lives.

Martin Scorsese does a wonderful job keeping this movie on a high at all times. Never once does this movie lose its energy or sense of humour much like the drug induced characters. There are a lot of quick cuts and edits to keep the movie feeling as If you are on drugs as well as playing high energy music in some of the more serious situations. (Having Gloria by Italian singer Umberto Tozzi start up in the middle of a more serious situation is pure genius you go from worry to laughter in a split second).

The serious drama and opposing vibrant comedy blend perfectly, while still holding focus. And the directing of the movie complements the writing to the point where the momentum of the film just never stops. The writing works fantastically with the actors as they sell every word they speak as if they're selling you a stock share. The Wolf of Wall Street really sucks you in and shows you the lifestyle of these characters, sparing nothing as it displays the great successes, the bizarre occurrences, and the dire consequences.


A lot of the credit of the film's overall success has to be awarded to Leonardo DiCaprio. In his breaking of the fourth wall, to his long but completely engaging monologues about life, money, and greed, it's the most assured and compelling work by the actor to date. I will admit you put Leo in a movie and l will watch it. The man is a brilliant actor always giving it his all and this was no different. You truly believed you were watching the real John Belfort on the screen. A sequence of DiCaprio crawling on the floor will probably be the scene of the year. (This scene was done in one take as Leo, according to Martin ended up straining his back). For those who have seen this movie you will know the scene I’m referring to and l will gladly admit l had tears of laughter streaming down my face watching it. This is one DiCaprio’s crowning achievements and will be one that will stand out in his list of movies, if he does not receive an Oscar for it l will be disappointed (not surprised through, as we all know Leo has deserved the Oscar before but has yet to receive one).


Margot Robbie makes quite an entrance and gives a solid performance here. She's a formidable beauty with lots of ambition and an overpowering stare that will let you see that she is not afraid to seek ambition. She demands the screen and you find yourself watching her more than the rest of the actors. Most of Margot’s scenes are quite demanding and she pulls them off well. The woman has no fear showing her body and let’s face it with a figure like that why would you, her full frontal scene appears quite early on and originally, Martin Scorsese had her appear wearing a bathrobe during the scene between her and Leonardo DiCaprio. She refused and insisted doing the scene fully-nude; the first in her career. Margot is quoted as saying: "The whole point of Naomi is that her body is her only form of currency in this world...she has to be naked. She's laying her cards on the table." She had three shots of tequila in succession before shooting the scene to relax.

Personally I enjoyed the film as a dark comedy delivered with energy and excess and while the film has little to no moral core - basically sending the message "it's all screwed so who cares” - I don’t mind this. It doesn’t hide what it is. We know we’re watching people committing fraud so we also know their morals are going to be somewhat loose. For anyone who has seen and loved Goodfellas and are a fan of Scorsese's style of film making it's a must see. All this being said l can see people hating this movie, with more than a few sex scenes (most of which fall on the funny side), a lot of drug use and every second word being a swear word this movie won’t be one for everyone to watch.





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