OK just for another change rather than review a film from the past, how about one right from the present day and this one is Martin Scorsese's latest film, The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo Di Caprio and is based on the real life memoirs of Jordan Belfort, a corrupt and flamboyant stockbroker who made his millions in Manhattan. And with that let's take a look at this clean wholesome family film.....ahem! OH AND SOME PLOT SPOILERS LIE AHEAD!!!
Right so the film begins with Jordan (Di Caprio) who flashes back to how his career began as a young stockbroker in Wall Street. Jordan starts a job at a well established Wall Street firm where his boss, Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey) advises him to adopt a lifestyle of sex and cocaine to help get ahead in the business. As Jordan passes his stockbroker licence exam however, on the first day with the firm as a licenced stockbroker, the worldwide stock crash named Black Monday happens, which leads to Jordan losing his job. Now unemployed, Jordan ends up taking a job with a Long Island boiler room dealing in penny stocks. Jordan ends up impressing his bosses with his aggressive selling style and he manages to make a small fortune for himself and his staff. Jordan soon befriends another salesman, Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) and together they go into business, along with the help of his parents, who are both accountants and his friends some of whom are drug dealers. Jordan gives his company a respectable sounding name Stratton Oakmont. And after an article is written about Jordan in Forbes, hundreds of ambitious business people come to work for him.
As Jordan's success grows, so does his excess, as he becomes addicted to cocaine and other drugs, such as Quaaludes and he regularly has wild parties both at his offices and out of work, involving hookers, sex and of course more drugs. Jordan then meets Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie) at one of his parties and he ends up having an affair with her, which soon results in him divorcing his wife, Teresa (Cristin Milioti). Jordan and Naomi soon marry and Jordan also buys Naomi a yacht which he names after her, and they go on to have a daughter named Skylar. However while Jordan enjoys his decadent and wealthy lifestyle, the FBI start to pay attention to his activities and he is soon investigated by FBI agent, Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) who works with this Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to put pressure on Jordan. And as things progress its not long at all before events spiral wildly out of control in both Jordan's personal and business life.
Based on the memoirs of Jordan Belfort, also of the same name, The Wolf of Wall Street is a very entertaining and at times uncomfortable film to watch, which shows the highs and lows of living a life of rich excess. Belfort similar to the fictional character of Gordon Gekko from Oliver Stone's film, Wall Street, is a real predator, a hungry guy who is out to make a fast buck wherever and whenever he can. And while Belfort remains a rather morally despicable character, the film also allows for some really funny moments, where Belfort loses himself in his own excesses and quite often when he is in a drug induced stupour it even produces some of the film's best moments. The film also doesn't hold back in showing Belfort's rich and decadent lifestyle where at nearly every turn in the film you see Belfort and his male staff up to their eyes in women, having casual sex in the offices, and wild orgies anywhere else they can. And with this film Martin Scorsese almost certainly has made a real eye opening experience which you won't quickly forget.
Performance wise however is where The Wolf of Wall Street really shines and Leonardo Di Caprio is simply outstanding in his part as Jordan Belfort, the ambitious, egotistical yet somehow charming stockbroker, who makes his millions and lives life like a king. Di Caprio has various highlights in the film, such as in the scenes where he delivers speeches to his office, as his speeches are really well written and delivered by Di Caprio with such ferocious energy at times you think his head might explode! One of Di Caprio's best scenes comes when he reveals to his staff that he intends to stand down and let his friend, Donny, take over the business, however during the scene he has a change of heart and he tells his staff "I'm not leaving! They're gonna need to send in the National guard to take me out, cos I ain't goin nowhere!! The show goes on!!". Di Caprio also narrates the film as Belfort as well, which allows for some funny dialogue there as well such as in his introduction when he says "My name is Jordan Belfort. The year I turned 26, I made 49 million dollars, which really pissed me off because it three shy of a million a week!". He also takes about his drug use openly throughout the film and in his introductory scene he talks about the various drugs he takes: "On a daily basis I consume enough drugs to sedate Manhattan, Long Island and Queens for a month! I take Quaaludes 10-15 times a day for my back pain, Adderall to stay focused, Xanax to take the edge off, pot to mellow me out, cocaine to wake me back up again, and morphine.... well, because its awesome!".
Di Capiro in the film also displays that he is quite adept at comedy as he has some moments that even are on the verge of slapstick, such as the hilarious scene where he takes very strong Quaaludes that Donnie gave him, but they don't take effect straight off, until some time later when Danny has to go to a pay phone to talk a private investigator. The PI tells Jordan that the FBI have bugged his house but at that point the Quaaldues kick in and he is rendered useless and nearly a vegetable as he collapses to the floor, he has to crawl and throw himself down the stairs to get to his car, and he eventually get's in the car and drives himself home, wrecking his car in the process! Also in the scene where they head for Switzerland on Naomi's boat, they get caught in a violent storm, and as Jordan and the others are terrified, he shouts to Donny to get them drugs, and he says "I am not gonna die sober!!". And another line that comes to mind, which was used in the trailer which is memorable is when in Di Caprio's various moments of breaking the fourth wall, he says to the audience "Was all this legal? Absolutely fuckin not!". Di Caprio in the film also deserves credit for taking so many risks with his part as he really dares to push his character to the limits of what an audience may find wholly unacceptable, yet he goes with it. And this is surely proved in one scene where he has a hooker push a candle up his ass! (maybe he pushed it too far there, chuckle chuckle! ;-)).
Jonah Hall is also great in his role as Donnie Azoff, Jordan's good friend and business partner. Hall clearly has a blast with his role as Azoff, who is basically just a nutter with no common sense, and he also loves his life of sex and drugs. Hall has some funny moments as well, such as in the scene where he takes the powerful quaaludes, which kick in while he is on the phone to Jordan and his Swiss banker. Hall also has some funny dialogue such in the scene where he tells Jordan that he married his cousin "I'm not like gonna let someone else fuck my cousin. If anyone's gonna fuck my cousin, it would be me! Out of respect". Also later in the film he has another good scene with Di Caprio when Donnie and Jordan share about the good old days of their excess and parties, by this time however Jordan is clean and no longer takes drugs and is drinking non-alcoholic beer. And Donnie says to him "What, so you wanna go inside and blow some lines of baking powder??? Baking soda??? Can't imagine ever not enjoying getting fucked up. I love it!". And in perhaps one of the film's most shocking moments when Jordna first meets Naomi at one of his parties, Donnie, while staring lustfully at her, pulls out his cock and starts wanking! Lovely eh???
The rest of the cast are also excellent, which includes Rob Reiner as Max Belfort's, Jordan's father, who is hot tempered, and his funniest moment comes when he is at home trying to watch The Equalizer and the phone rings and he loses it completely. Matthew McConaughey is also really good in his role as Mark Hanna, a former Wall Street broker, who introduces Jordan to the wealthy lifestyle in Manhattan. McConaughey shares a really good scene with Di Caprio, when Mark takes Jordan to lunch and he tells him how it is, and he tells Jordan how many times per week he should jerk off! "Me, I jack it 12-15 times a week! Twice a day. Once in the morning after I work out, once after lunch. If you don't do it, the stress of this job, you'll explode. Or you'll implode. You don't wanna implode!" and he then says "I want to jerk off, but that's not what I do it. I do it because I NEED to!!". And at the end of the scene is memorable where Hanna thumps his chest and hums a song "I do" by an African guitarist and singer, Ali Farka Toure, which Jordan hums with him.
Margot Robie is also pretty good in her role as Naomi, Jordan's gorgeous and seductive wife, whom he falls madly in love with at first, but its not long before they drive each other insane due to Jordan's crazy excesses of drugs and sex. Robie has several highlights in the film, the first that springs to mind is the scene where Jordan and Naomi go out on their first date and they go back to her place, while Jordan waits, desparate to shag her, he receives a message from his wife telling him to call, but at that moment Naomi steps out of her bedroom, completely naked! (very nice indeed!). Another is the scene where Naomi teases Jordan by showing him that she isn't wearing any underwear under her skirt as she spreads her legs, but she tells him he's not to touch her, and he in turns teases her as he has a small camera planted in one of their daughter's teddy's, which recorded the whole thing!
Kyle Chandler also provides a good performance as the clean cut FBI man, Patrick Denham who investigates Jordan and he shares a good scene with Di Caprio when they meet on Jordan's boat, and during the scene Jordan makes a blatant attempt to bribe him. And during their chat, Denham is impressed by Jordan's boat and says "Let me tell you something. This is one of the nicest boats I've ever been on. And just imagine the hero I'm gonna be back at the office when the Bureau seizes this boat!". And lastly Joanna Lumley provides a nice change in tone with her performance as Naomi's Aunt Emma, who at one point Jordan meets her in London and they share an initimate moment together where Jordan thinks "Is she fucking hitting on me??" and as he tries to make a small move on Emma, she thinks "Is he fucking hitting on me????!".
Getting onto the direction, Martin Scorsese does a fine job as you would expect here with the film, and despite the film's length at three hours long, it rarely ever drags and in fact the film really does move along at quite a fast pace. Scorsese also employs all his usual technical skills in his film making which he displays effortlessly here as he has before, along with his film making partner in crime Thelma Schoonmaker, The Wolf of Wall Street is visually quite an impressive movie. The soundtrack like in fine Scorsese tradition also features a variety of tracks from different artists such as the Foo Fighters, Bo Didley, Malcolm McLaren, Elmore James, Eartha Kit, Romeo Void, and even Ian Dury, and they are all well used throughout.
As for the Wolf's flaws.... does it have any worth mentioning??? Well yes it does to an extent, as the real problem for me lies in the depiction of Jordan's excesses, which are shown in such a graphic way at times you just feel overwhelmed by the endless snorting and shagging you are subjected to on screen. There are times where it can be funny, but it can also make for some rather uncomfortable viewing at times too, and there is no doubt that this film won't be for everyone, and there are definitely moments where you feel you can't escape what you are being subjected to, as it really does feel like a full blown assault on your senses. Another problem lies with Jordan's character as at some point he goes from being an almost likeable and mischievious son-so, into an egotistical asshole who eventually goes into full meltdown. By the end of the film you get that Jordan has been through his personal hell and come out on the other side but at the same time the film's ending still leaves you questioning his moral compass (in reality Jordan has been said to have been clean since 1998). Although in reality Jordan after all the fuss of his legal problems died down, he went on to become a motivational speaker, which he does to this day.
So that's it for my review of The Wolf of Wall Street, which is a very entertaining as well as controversial film, which is worth a watch, but it won't be for everyone and its far from subtle, however if you go in with a fairly open mind you might still find it will make you laugh and whince as well. Also in another stat worth mentioning is it also breaks the record for the most uses of the f-word in any feature film as it stands at well over 500 uses of the f-word, now that's a milestone in itself! (Well actually the documentary film "Fuck" contains the most at 800 but The Wolf certainly takes second place).
And on that note I shall leave you there.
Byee!
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