The Wolf of Wall Street Review

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!"