If you take “Wall Street,” add “Goodfellas,” and multiply it by “American Psycho,” it will equal “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Several months ago, director Martin Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio jokingly said they would be ready to retire after making this movie. After seeing it, I can easily see why.
Scorsese (“The Departed,” “Gangs of New York”) directs and produces this biopic that tells the mostly true life story of Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio), a stockbroker in New York in the late 1980s and ’90s. The 3-hour epic documents Belfort’s rise, emperor-like pea, and fall in the world of illegal trading on Wall Street before the FBI take him down.
Originally a pupil of Wall Street giant Mark Hanna (think Gordon Gekko), played by MAtthew McConaughey, Belfort starts his own business after the crash of 1987. Eventually using nearly all his employees and partners for monetary benefit, Belfort can no longer escape the “feds” and prison time is inevitable.
Let me put how intense and adult this movie is into perspective: it has the most explicit scenes and the most uses of the worst swear words in any non-documentary film. Ever. It had to be edited down several times to not be rated NC-17. And it is still three hours long.
With that said, everything else about it is brilliantly done and resulted in a phenomenal film. And I think it has a lot to do with the screenplay. No doubt one of the best scripts of all the 2013 movies, particularly because of the dialogue between characters. If you know the movie “Wall Street,” you know of Gordon Gekko’s famous “Greed is good” speech.
There are at least five similar speeches in this movie that uses language to suck the audience right in. I’d be lying if I didn’t say, after some of the speeches by DicCaprio, I wanted to be a stockbroker. he made it look like so much fun, until all the drug and alcohol abuse, stealing over $20 million, and the getting divorced for being a horrible husband and father scenes.
The supporting cast is also hilarious and crazy. Jonah Hill portrays Donnie Azoff, Belfort’s first partner, and he is a man who never knows when enough is enough. He takes everything too far, and it always comes around to bite him in the backside. Belfort may take three or four pills at a party: Donnie will take eight. Belfort will hire a hooker or two a week: Donnie will hire two a day. And he constantly belittles, ridicules, and mocks everyone in the company. He even ate an intern’s goldfish and smashed its bowl because the intern was cleaning it during his break when he could have been making another deal.
You could say Donnie is just dedicated to getting rich and in the context of the film he is hilarious. But the tragedy of the real-life character is something to keep in mind. It makes Hill’s performance that much better.
Rob Reiner is hilarious and endearing as Jordan’s father. McConaughey is hilarious as Jordan’s first boss. Jean Dujardin is hilarious as the president of a Swiss bank where Jordan wants to hide his money. Everyone gave it their all and truly tried to make this picture a unique comedy, and they all succeeded with flying colors.
It’s no secret that Martin Scorsese is a huge fan and buff of classic rock, and rock music in general, so his soundtracks for his films are always a joy. This film is no different. You have jazz by Bo Diddley and Cannonball Adderly, rock/pop by Billy Joel and The Beach Boys, and then Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” and Foo Fighters’ “Everlong,” not to mention some show tunes from classic musicals. The music never disappoints nor misses the chance to enhance a scene with a certain song.
“The Wolf of Wall Street” has already earned many nominations in many of the most prestigious awards ceremonies and several Oscar nods should be coming its way next month. This is by far Scorsese’s most daring film. It has pushed the limits, in terms of sex, drugs, and language, in movies that “Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” and “The Departed” no longer even come close to.
It is a fantastic film, one of the top 10 of 2013, and it is hilarious, thrilling, and quite the ride throughout. But don’t let that fool you. All the explicit content is constant throughout. For anyone 16 and younger, go see “Saving Mr. Banks” or “Frozen” instead. But for everyone over the age of 17, I definitely recommend seeing this. If you can handle the madness.
Quigley Films Unlimited 