Movie Review #57 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

- white collar crimes always payout

Another Martin Scorsese film up for an Oscar. It doesn't feel that long ago I was sitting down watching my first Scorsese film. Oh right. It wasn't. Everyone has a gap in their knowledge or hobbies and Scorsese was certainly mine. It was only a few years ago I guess I watched my first one, I think I wrote out the actual day in a previous blog post(?). I of course had a fill of Scorsese as I just sat down and watched his films one weekend so I can't say for sure what one was first, but I can say I did enjoy all of them immensely. I am completely guilty of brand loyalty, so it should come as no surprise that I went into The Wolf on Wall Street with my arms open wide to embrace the movie.

Up for five Oscars I am shocked by not one of the nominations, but for WHO the nomination is for. I'm not sure what I'm missing or perhaps what the Oscars see in him but yes Jonah Hill portraying Donnie Azoff is now the two time nominated actor. I thought the minor screen time of Matthew McConaughey was overwhelmingly better than Jonah Hill's. This is important coming from me for two reasons. Firstly I was against McConaughey. I always thought he was just some schmuck who hates wearing his shirt, a back burner actor who shows up, does his lines and walks away. Never taking a scene holding on to it and leaving a lasting impression. He steals his scene in The Wolf of Wall Street which is my second point. He is in the movie for under 15 minutes, while Jonah Hill is in the remaining run time of the movie and McConaughey holds all the impact. Incredible sequence which I thought he deserved a nod for instead of Hill. Leonardo DiCaprio is up for best male is not surprising, he's playing a similar type of character that he has played in many other movies -and all well acted. It's nice but I'd like to see him branch out more, I give his chances of winning best actor are low but I wouldn't call it an upset if he did win just safer. Directing and writing and best picture all go hand in hand I think especially when you're looking at a Scorsese film. I see Terence Winter walking away with best writing, hell I'd give it to him for writing McConaughey's speech and a couple of DiCaprio's alone.

Suits of the 80s can not be beaten.

As you've already guessed, I really enjoyed the movie. It had some faults which I'll get into but the good didn't just outweigh the bad, it made me ignore them, which I think is almost as good as perfect. The strength comes from the long winded speeches that some of the characters hit on multiple times throughout the movie. Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) has numerous speeches to his coworkers (read underlings) and Mark Hanna (played by Matthew McConaughey) has an amazing one on with Belfort in the early going of the movie that really grabbed me and took me along for the ride. It was really good and set the tone of the entire movie for me to enjoy a fast ball movie where words were the weapons and it never really let up.

Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, I think this movie did a lot more right telling the story than a lot of other based on true stories. In my time off from this blog, I watched Pain & Gain (similar idea, based on true story, guys just trying to get rich) While Pain & Gain arguably better distinguished why their main characters wanted to get rich, the tone, acting and pacing were incredibly off putting throughout the entirety of the movie. Something that is drastically better in The Wolf of Wall Street. While the movie is three hours long one would think they'd cover everything such as character motives. But I felt they blurred over that with just a general “because”. I'm not really sure the real Belfort had any other reason, but within the confines of a movie, the reason behind a pursuit is always important. I'm also not a huge fan of characters breaking the fourth wall as it really takes me out of the story, they don't do it all the time, as half of the time comments are said as it is being told to you after the fact, something I'm o.k. with. But when they are talking to you while other people are around? It's just weird for me to comprehend why they do that. It's all minor, but if you're looking for a reason it isn't perfect, it is this for me.

Talk to the people on screen, not me please.

I've read people thought the movie glorified drug and alcohol use, but I think they need to take their head out of the sand. I won't give details for spoiler reasons, but I felt they did a good job at showing the ups and downs of their uses and I certainly wasn't privy to any glorification. But hey maybe my view is too wide.

I give it 9/10

PS: Quaaludes are legal in Canada with prescription, as a completely informative purpose, by the way.