The Wolf of Wall Street

WARNING: This review is hidden because it reveals the content of the film.
Click here to show this review. “The Wolf of Wall Street” could have been called “Hedonism: the movie” and for that reason, some people are going to be tremendously offended by the debauchery on display here; for everyone else it’s one of the best movies of 2013. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a man who dreams of making it big by becoming a stockbroker. His very first lunch hour begins with his boss (Matthew McConaughey in a small but memorable role) advising him to have sex as frequently as possible to relieve tension and to jump into the habit of using cocaine to keep his mind sharp. Needless to say getting into the business of selling stocks is not what it was advertised. Jordan fully embraces this advice and we follow him as he is forced to begin his career over from the bottom following the market crash of 1987. Using legal, but unethical means, he starts making money selling penny stocks; a lot of money. Soon, Jordan and his business associates have set up their own business and have so much money they have no idea what to do with it. They begin spending it on useless frivolities, engaging in the most decadent behavior imaginable (Short of actually killing people for pleasure) both at home and at the office and it isn’t long before the drugs, the sex and the parties are totally out of control, and the FBI takes notice. First of all, I want to tell everyone who has ever pulled out their phone in the middle of a movie theatre that you shouldn’t bother with this one. This motion picture is three hours long and if you’re one of those troglodytes that still don’t understand how incredibly rude it is to do text at the theatre, you don’t have the patience for this film. Same goes for anyone that is uncomfortable with sex and vulgarities in movies. I cannot believe that this movie didn’t get an NC-17 rating. If you thought “Boogie Nights”, a film about the porno industry had a lot of nudity and sex in it, you haven’t seen anything yet. If you’re a more conservative movie viewer, you will be appalled by what is shown on screen. The point of the movie is both to amaze you and disgust you by showing what people with absurd amounts of money and wanton disregard for ethics pull off but even so, I really doubt you’ll be able to stand it. Now that we’ve gotten that straight, let’s begin. This is a tremendous achievement for everyone included. The performances are spectacular and, while there are five actors I wish I could discuss in detail, I will limit myself to two. First is our main man, played by DiCaprio. I still hear people who have reservations about him because of his role in “Titanic” (honestly, they’re just jealous that they didn’t get to see Kate Winslet naked in person) but it’s hard not to love him in this movie, despite his faults. He knows he’s a bad guy and he fully embraces it, then invites you along for the ride. Jordan frequently breaks the fourth wall and explains to the audience some of the more technical terms associated with stockbroking, or starts explaining but then throws away the notion if he recognizes that it isn’t important to the story. You really get to see the evolution of the man and from the actor, we get a huge range of emotions. He’s got humble beginnings at first and at that point, he’s an ambitious young man with a real fire in his heart, as the film progresses we see him devolve into a total degenerate that can’t stand to be sober for a minute. In between we see a man in love (true love and misguided love), a wounded father, a con-man, a raging businessman and even a guy who is looking to sober up and find redemption. DiCaprio is totally convincing in the role and I will eat my hat if he doesn’t get a nomination for best actor. The other performer I want to shine some light upon is Jonah Hill as Donnie Azoff, a salesman who gets recruited by Jordan and soon becomes his best friend and business partner. You cannot recognize him as the man that was just a few years ago drawing lewd images in his binders in “Superbad”. It would be a stretch to say that his character is likeable, there are few characters in this film that you would actually want to spend a weekend with and even then you’d need a tetanus shot afterwards, but he is consistently entertaining. On the one hand you can really relate to him because when he is first introduced, he’s just a regular guy. He just happens to hit up a conversation with Jordan and it totally changes his life. He’s exactly the kind of person you wish you could be, quitting your job at the drop of a hat to work in a lucrative business that brings in money by the wheelbarrow-full. On the other hand, this man is seriously messed up. When you hear what his marriage is about, you’ll really question his sanity and it only gets worse from there as he engages in more and more immoral behavior. This is a black comedy so it bounces between so dark it becomes disturbing and so funny you will forgive everything. Helping ease the story through the madness is the chemistry between Hill and DiCaprio. These guys really feel like friends and having seen them in these roles, I can’t imagine anyone else tackling it on. Despite the themes of degeneration and absolute corruption, this is actually a movie that generates a lot of laughs. A significant amount of them are just straight-up jokes but this is a very unusual film in that you will find yourself cheerfully laughing nervously. Let me explain. The opening scene features the employees at Stratton Oakmont (the Firm Jordan establishes with Donnie) tossing a dwarf, dressed up in a Velcro body suit at a giant target. It’s a scene taken straight out of “Jackass” and it’s hilarious. The movie is filled with scenes like that and the characters are constantly topping themselves, but at a certain point, it will dawn on you. This is not a business, it’s a madhouse. The firm might as well be a mental asylum because these people do not know how to behave like normal human beings. All sense of moral decency has completely evaporated and it becomes kind of frightening to see what new stunt they will pull next. These people are so detached from normal reality that they can no longer operate without hiring prostitutes during their lunches and consuming drugs every waking hour. At the beginning of the movie, the fun of it was seeing these people struggling and winning money against all odds, but towards the end it becomes a comedy like “Home Alone”, where a bunch of numb skulls are so caught up in their own vile habits that they can’t help getting themselves into catastrophic, life-endangering situations. Half of you is cheering for them to wake up from this fantasy they’re living, the other half is crossing your fingers hoping they fail and get themselves killed. Either way, you can’t help but laugh out loud as Jordan turns his brain into a bowl of Jell-O and makes a complete ass of himself in public over and over thanks to his favorite drugs or becomes so bored with his reality that he tries the most ridiculous sex acts just to try and get excited about something. We also get a chimp dressed up as a businessman and that may be totally inappropriate, but it’s still funny. Yes it is long, but there’s always something new coming up on the screen so the only real way I noticed the length was because my butt (despite the very comfortable seats in the theatre) got numb. It’s a vulgar, hilarious, gripping and even frightening glimpse at this world that you hope is completely made up but deep down you feel is probably way too close to reality. It isn’t going to be for everyone, but when you watch this, it’s like seeing a master craftsman putting together one of his finest masterpieces in the sense that Martin Scorsese has put all of the pieces together flawlessly and that it’s always compelling to see someone who knows what they’re doing do it well, even if it is juggling drugs, a highly profitable business, sex parties and a family. Everyone here and every element is universally excellent and it’s going on my best of the year list. (Theatrical version on the big screen, January 7, 2014)