Rated
R (Sequences of Strong Sexual Content, Graphic Nudity, Drug Use and Language Throughout,
and for Some Violence)
Running
Time: 3 Hours
Cast-
Leonardo
DiCaprio-Jordan Belfort
Jonah
Hill-Donnie Azoff
Margot
Robbie-Naomi Lapaglia-Belfort
Kyle
Chandler-FBI Agent Patrick Denham
Matthew
McConaughey-Mark Hanna
Jean
Dujardin-Jean Jacques Saurel
Cristin
Milioti-Teresa Petrillo-Belfort
Rob
Reiner-Max Belfort
Christine
Ebersole-Leah Belfort
Joanna
Lumley-Aunt Emma
Mackenzie
Meehan-Hildy Azoff
Jon
Bernthal-Brad
Jon
Favreau-Manny Riskin
P.J.
Byrne-Nicky Koskoff
Kenneth
Choi-Chester Ming
Brian
Sacca-Robbie Feinberg
Henry
Zebrowski-Alden Kupferberg
Ethan
Suplee-Toby Welch
Barry
Rothbart-Peter DeBlasio
Jake
Hoffman-Steve Madden
Bo
Dietl-Himself
Jon
Spinogatti-Nicholas the Butler
Aya
Cash-Janet/Jordan's Assistant
Jordan
Belfort-Auckland Straight Line Host
Directed
by Martin Scorsese
 |
| Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a bravura performance in Martin Scorsese's latest magnum opus, "The Wolf of Wall Street." |
Note: Screened on Wednesday, December 18, 2013 at AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13.
My
mother often says that if she were rich, the first thing she would do is hire a
housekeeper. However, she would continue working at her sales job, which may go
against the point of being rich (why work when you already have millions of dollars
in your bank account?) but we Asians are nothing if not pragmatic. We know full
well that money doesn't last forever. New York stock broker Jordan Belfort, played
by an insanely brilliant Leonardo DiCaprio in director Martin Scorsese's latest
film "The Wolf of Wall Street," doesn't share my mother's quaint view
on wealth. By age twenty-six, Belfort had his own brokerage firm and was making
forty-nine million dollars a year. He had achieved the 'American Dream' but
then he blew all that money away on an endless supply of drugs, hookers, and
more drugs and hookers. Belfort is extremely proud of his vices too; after
showing off his 'mansion, private jet, six cars, three horses, two vacation
homes and…170 foot yacht,' he remarks that he 'also gamble[s] like a degenerate,
drink like a fish, f*ck hookers…five times a week and have three different Federal
agencies looking to indict [him].' Oh, and have I mentioned that he loves drugs? Hell, with the amount of Quaaludes
(read about them here), Xanax,
Ambien, marijuana, cocaine, and morphine that he takes per day, it's frankly a
miracle that Belfort is still alive and kicking. The man is a thoroughly despicable
scoundrel with absolutely no moral compass (since his release from prison in 2006,
he still hasn't fully paid back the $110.4 million he owes in restitution) but
he remains a charismatic, fascinating individual. A darkly comic, unflinchingly
disturbing, and grotesquely hedonistic deconstruction of the moral erosion of
the American Dream, Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" isn't just
one of the finest films of 2013, it's a bona fide classic that's on par with
the director's best works and cements his status as a timeless voice in American
cinema. Despite its three-hour running time, there is not a single dull moment
in the film thanks to a bravura performance from Leonardo DiCaprio.
Fresh
out of college and newly married, optimistic twenty-two year old Jordan Belfort
(Leonardo DiCaprio) arrives in New York City in the summer of 1987 with big dreams
of making it rich on Wall Street. Starting out on the chaotic trading room
floor of investment banking firm L.F. Rothschild, Belfort catches the eye of Mark
Hanna (Matthew McConaughey), who tells the naïve young man that the keys to success
are 'masturbation, cocaine, and hookers.' Finally made an official stockbroker after
passing his Series 7, Belfort sets out to conquer the world and become a 'Master
of the Universe' but his hopes and dreams come crashing down when the stock market
collapses on October 19, 1987—otherwise known as 'Black Monday.' With a wife—Teresa
(Cristin Milioti)—to support, Belfort decides to take a job at Long Island's Investor's
Center, where he pushes penny stocks onto hapless, uneducated blue collar workers.
Thanks to a fifty-percent commission rate, he is soon rolling in the dough, allowing
him to form his own brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont in 1988 with new business partner
Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill). It doesn't take long for Belfort's new firm to become
a force to be reckoned with on Wall Street, with the former stockbroker becoming
wealthier than he could have ever imagined. Eventually dumping his first wife
in favor of lingerie designer Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie)—the so-called 'Duchess
of Bay Ridge'—Belfort's life quickly becomes consumed in a sea of money, drugs,
and hookers. With the American Dream now within his grasp, Belfort grows careless
and attracts the attention of FBI Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler), who waits
for a chance to bring the arrogant and hedonistic stock titan to justice.
Adapted
by "Boardwalk Empire" creator Terence Winter from Jordan Belfort's 2007
tell-all memoir of the same name, Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall
Street" opens with a soothing, early '90s commercial about the dangerous
world of investing, with the narrator comparing it to a jungle. Here to lend a
helping hand is Stratton Oakmont, a prestigious brokerage firm that offers 'stability,
integrity, [and] pride.' You can almost hear Scorsese yelling 'bullsh*t!' behind
the camera as he then cuts to the actual Stratton Oakmont, where three hundred drunken
stockbrokers are playing a game that involves tossing a bunch of dwarves onto a
dollar-signed bull's-eye. At first glance, "The Wolf of Wall Street" appears
to be a redemptive tale of a man who got caught up in his own greed but the
film is the complete opposite of
this. Sure, Belfort was successfully convicted for securities fraud and money laundering
yet he only served a mere twenty-two months in prison. Now he's living a
comfortable life in Manhattan Beach, California as a motivational speaker, with
an audience who are hungry and desperate to have what he has. Meanwhile, the
FBI agent that arrested Belfort is probably still commuting home on the subway.
He may have brought the stock titan to justice but where did it get him? That's
right, nowhere. As Vanity Fair's Katey Rich puts it, "The Wolf of Wall
Street" is a film where 'the bad guys win, over and over again.' For three
hours, we watch Belfort rise to the top, not through honest hard work but by
lying and scheming on the backs of anyone who were dumb enough to invest with
him. In between he's blowing coke inside a hooker's a**hole, crashing his Lamborghini
while high on fifteen-year-old Quaaludes, and physically assaulting his wife
when it all comes crashing down on him. Scorsese leaves little doubt that
Belfort is a revolting individual but you know what? We keep watching because as
bad as he is, his charisma and his ability to motivate outshines his worst qualities,
creating an individual that is endlessly fascinating from beginning to end.
A
big part of the film's success is Leonardo DiCaprio's infectious performance,
which I'll get to later but what sets "The Wolf of Wall Street" apart
is it's wildly irreverent tone. Scorsese isn't overly concerned with condemning
Belfort's behavior; instead he exaggerates the memoir's already-bizarre occurrences
to hilarious effect. One scene that will leave your sides hurting from extreme
laughter is when Belfort discovers the 'cerebral palsy phase' while high on
fifteen-year-old Quaaludes. Transformed into an incoherent, drooling mess, the
man starts crawling along the floor like an infant, his every move a struggle.
To get to his Lamborghini, he rolls down the stairs. When Belfort finally gets
home, he finds an equally-high Donnie (a renamed Danny Porush) on the phone
with their Swiss banker (played by a gleeful Jean Dujardin), leading to a ludicrous
struggle that ends with Belfort snorting an entire vial of cocaine—while Popeye's
famous theme plays in the background—in order to save his best friend from choking
to death on a piece of ham. I have to say, this scene was funnier than all of 2013's
comedies combined. Scorsese packs his film with outrageous moments like these,
each more grotesque and disturbing than the last. We should turn away but we don't
because deep down, we crave Belfort's
lifestyle.
It's
easy to mistake the endless drug-fueled orgies as pointless but that would be doing
Scorsese a great disservice. There's a purpose behind every scene and what's great
about Winter's script is how it reveals the American Dream to be a total farce,
a lie. The ideal of being rewarded for honest hard work is dead. It's been beaten
to death by the 'dog-eat-dog' world of Wall Street greed. Everyone wants to get
rich quick and while Belfort stole millions of dollars with his numerous 'pump and
dump' schemes, his victims are equally complicit. People allow themselves to be
conned. We let people like Belfort ruin our economy while he funds his latest
orgy with the money that some overeager investor, whether rich or poor, gave
him. Even as we're laughing along at his increasingly over-the-top escapades, Scorsese
is holding a giant mirror in front of us, screaming that we allowed this. We allow people like Belfort to exist and enabled
his behavior by blindly giving him money in the hopes that we will become rich
ourselves. HitFix's Drew McWeeny says it best with the following line from his
review: 'Wall Street may be a vampire, but America leaves a standing invitation
at the door, allowing themselves to be drained because they hope against hope
that just maybe they'll get turned and then it'll be them doing the draining.' That's
the true genius behind "The Wolf of Wall Street." On the surface, it
seems to openly mock Belfort's hedonistic lifestyle but really its showing how
morally lost America has become in the crazed pursuit of money.
The
performances in this film are absolutely amazing. It pains me that Leonardo DiCaprio
has yet to win an Academy Award because in "The Wolf of Wall Street,"
he doesn't play Jordan Belfort; he becomes
him. Never have I seen an actor throw himself into a role with such wild abandon,
with DiCaprio transforming into a hypnotic, cult-like figure as his character
screams at the top of lungs at his employees, motivating them to 'ram…stock down
[their] clients' throats and make them choke on it till they buy 20,000 shares!'
This is a career-best performance from DiCaprio and he delivers it with absolutely
nothing held back. For three hours, you are convinced that he's the amoral,
sociopathic, condescending, sick f*ck that Belfort was. Jonah Hill feeds off of
his co-star's kinetic energy as Donnie Azoff and there are moments where his
character becomes even more morally depraved than Belfort. The gorgeous Margot Robbie
is a revelation here, holding her own in several explosive scenes with DiCaprio
as her character Naomi confronts Belfort about his continued infidelity. The
rest of the supporting cast only has a handful of scenes but they nail each and
every one of them, with Matthew McConaughey being a standout as he hilariously imparts
some sage-like wisdom about being a successful stockbroker. Jon Bernthal's Brad
has a number of funny moments with Donnie as they express their animosity
toward each other while Kyle Chandler shares a great scene with DiCaprio, their
characters verbally attacking one another. Finally, there's Rob Reiner as
Belfort's father 'Mad Max,' as he's affectionately called. Unable to steer his
son on the right path, he tries to enjoy the ride despite expressing his
befuddlement that women now shave their vaginas.
Released
on December 25, 2013, "The Wolf of Wall Street" has received positive
reviews with a solid 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics hailed it as 'funny,
self-referential, and irreverent to a fault, [the film] finds Martin Scorsese
and Leonardo DiCaprio at their most infectiously dynamic.' It's pretty much
guaranteed to be a major contender at next year's Academy Awards but audience
reception has been polarizing to say the least. I'm not at all surprised
because when the masses are presented with a film whose subject matter is
either unfamiliar or uncomfortable, they reject it. I don't think it really
matters in the long run though. It obviously got people talking and if you came
away disgusted, I'm sorry to say that the film's message was lost on you. "The
Wolf of Wall Street" is a hilarious picture for sure and easily stands
tall as one of 2013's best but it's also a disturbing film, and what it has to
say about the state of America should frighten you. As critic Matt Zoller Seitz
writes, 'We laugh at the movie, but guys like Belfort will never stop laughing
at us.' Ain't so funny now, is it?
Final
Rating: 5 out of 5
"There
is no nobility in poverty. I've been rich, and I've been poor and I choose rich
every time. At least as a rich man, when I have to face my problems, I show up
in the back of a limo wearing a $2000 suit and $40,000 gold watch! And if
anyone here thinks I'm crazy, get the f*ck out and get a job at McDonald’s,
because that's where you f*cking belong! But before you depart this room full
of winners, I want you to take a good look at the person next to you, because
one day in the not-so-distant future, you'll be sitting at a red light in your
beat-up old Pinto, and that person’s gonna pull up in a brand new Porsche, with
their gorgeous young wife at their side. And who will you be next to? Some ugly
beast with three days of razor-stubble in a sleeveless moo-moo, crammed in next
to you with a carload of groceries from the f*cking Price Club! So you listen
to me and listen carefully. Are you behind on your credit card bills? Good.
Pick up the phone and start dialing. Is your landlord threatening to evict you?
Good. Pick up the phone and start dialing. Does your girlfriend think you're a
f*cking loser? Pick up the phone and start f*cking dialing! I want you to deal
with your problems by becoming rich! I want you to go out and spend money!
Leverage yourself, back yourself into a corner, let the consequences of failure
become so f*cking unthinkable that you'll have no choice but to do whatever it
takes to win! You have an obligation here, people! To your clients! To this firm!
An obligation to yourself, godammit! You ram Steve Madden stock down your
clients' throats and make them choke on it till they buy 20,000 shares! Be
aggressive! Be ferocious! Be telephone f*cking terrorists!"
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