2013.179 minutes. Rated R.
Quote “You show me a pay stub for $72,000 on it, I quit my job right now and I work for you.”
The Wolf of Wall Street – Paramount Pictures
Did you ever have an amazing piece of chocolate cake? I’m sure you have. It’s absolutely exquisite tasting, and it needs nothing added to it to improve it at all. That’s Leonardo Dicaprio and Martin Scorsese. The combination these guys have worked out, they’re chocolate cake. You get excited when it’s time for them, almost feel guilty because you know how good it’s going to be. They’ve done several great films together before this. Leo hasn’t made a bad movie in over a decade, and Marty… well, his record isn’t perfect, but it almost is. He’s one of the finest directors of the last quarter century, and I may be downplaying it. Many feel he’s the best.
Scorsese has it down to a science, especially when it comes to bio pics. He has a knack for locating famous stories, that have the making of greatness, and just inflating them in fabulous ways, like lighting a small firecracker on the ground the size of a cigarette, and watching it explode with fire and light in the sky.
Stories like Goodfellas for Henry Hill, Aviator for Howard Hughes, Raging Bull for Jake Lamotta, and next year we’ll get to see him direct Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa, and he also has plans to direct a bio pic on Frank Sinatra. He just knows who to cast as whom, and in what way to inject his talents as a the director.
Where was I, though? Oh yeah. Cake. These guys are glorious chocolate cake that needs nothing on it. Enter The Wolf of Wall Street. A story about money, power, greed, success, and some real wild times.
This movie was decadent. It was sweet, it was bad for you, it was thick, and it was rich. It’s that oozing chocolate sauce you find on the rare piece of chocolate cake at really fancy restaurants. It’s sweeter than the cake. The second you taste it, you know it’s bad for you, but you relish in every second of it.
The Wolf of Wall Street tells the true tale of Jordan Belfort. His net worth (before this movie came out) was already over $100 million. This is the story of the Koolaid he made, and how everyone around him drank down every drop of it.
Jordan Belfort starts out as a nickel and dime stock broker, trying to make his way and learn his trade in the unforgiving life lead by a young gun on Wall Street. He learns the tricks of the trade from a more experienced, drug-addled, money-craving success story Mark Hanna, played by (Matthew McConaughey). McConaughey was filming the Dallas Buyers Club at the same time, so his role in this film was short, but impactful.
Then before you know it, Jordan is out on his own, ready to sling stories and make some money. Which he does, more than he can count.
Jordan meets a friend along the way named Donnie (Jonah Hill). Donnie is your average dude, he’s just a semi-normal guy (who married his cousin) who wants the high life, just like Jordan. He pledges allegiance to Jordan and his methods within a matter of seconds of meeting him. Together they start making money selling bum stocks to suckers. Lots of suckers.
Jordan pulls in a bunch of his childhood pals and teaches them his art of slinging baloney over the phone, to reel in the big fish with lines meant for guppies. Overnight, these clowns are filthy stinking rich. They instantly develop a taste for parties, women, drugs, cars… chocolate sauce meant for cake that didn’t need it in the first place, yes -I’m still talking about cake.
We see the rise to power of average joe nobodies. What would you do if you hit it big? You’d go buck wild, that’s what. These guys just party and party like they’ll never come down. They peddle the stocks and throw parties like you can’t believe. I mean, it’s just insanity from the first minute the film begins. It’s almost like… like a movie.
The List: The Players
- Martin Scorcese
I’m scared to even try and write about him. What do I need to say really that hasn’t already been said, and that people don’t already know? He’s done it again, folks. I walked out to the car and said it out loud: The Wolf of Wall Street is the new Casino. It’s the new Goodfellas. You with me? You think I’m full of it, huh? Ok, go see it. You’ll understand.
This film, like most of Scorcese’s, is a period piece. It’s not going to go out of style. You know what it compares to well actually? Blow. The story of George Jung. That movie was all about coke, while this is movie all about money, but the two often follow each other in stories like this. Drugs, parties, women, the high life, the crimes, and inevitably… the justice.
Add this one to the list. It’s no better than the great Scorcese films of the past, but it’s almost good enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
- Jonah Hill
Jonah Hill really stole the show. He’s was pigeon-holed for a long time as the young brash stoner in movies by Judd Apatow or alongside guys like Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd. He was great in them, too. He didn’t seem to mind the one-dimensional direction that his career was taking, either. Then all of a sudden, he got nominated for an Oscar in 2011’s Moneyball. All of a sudden everyone opened their eyes. Did Jonah take a serious role? Alongside an A-lister like Brad Pitt? Jonah can’t work with those guys… can he?
Friends, trust me when I tell you: forget Moneyball.
This was the greatest role of this kid’s career, and now he’s made it abundantly clear to everyone; he can hang. He got nominated for Moneyball, and he got nominated for this too. Check out War Dogs from 2016 while I’m at it. It was just a so-so movie, but some good acting from Hill.
He can hang with the best of them, and he can show up strong and rub shoulders with the greatest. He’s on his way. If he doesn’t get some kinda nod for this, I dunno, it’d be a real shame. His portrayal of Donnie Azoff is tremendous. He’s larger than life. The guy is drug-addled, well dressed, completely ridiculous, yet focused and money-driven. You forget that this is Jonah Hill really. He’s married to this role and took the screen over whenever he was on it. I’m sure he was meant to be an accent, but his organized chaos rivaled Leo’s at times, if feels weird even saying it.
The differences between his character and Leo’s portrayal of Jordan Belfort are slim, if any. They are essentially playing the same guy. Leo will got all the credit for this picture, and hey, I won’t argue. Jonah is as much a part of this movie as the director, though. He was a perfect compliment to Leo, and was in almost every scene.
- Leooooooo
I mean this guy is honestly, in my opinion, he was the best actor of all time to not have an Oscar, then he got one though. I can name hits of his until I’m blue in the face. I won’t even bother, really. His performances won a lot of Oscars for other people too, if that’s even possible. The actors around him get elevated just being able to play off him. It doesn’t matter who he’s with, they look better for being near him. He’s as good as Brad, Viggo, Daniel, Phillip, Denzel… I mean he’s right next to these guys, if not in front of them. He has the charisma of the young Deniro, the explosiveness of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, the suave of Brad Pitt. Really, he’s got it all. He acts calm and cool to draw you in, then explodes with passion throughout to keep you on the edge of the seat (and laughing) by the end, you see his human sign, but it makes no difference that Jordan isn’t perfect, because Leo’s portrayal was.
(end of The List)
It’s shocking it took him so long to get a statue. No Oscar for Revolutionary Road, Catch Me If You Can, Aviator, Blood Diamond, Titanic, Gangs of New York, The Departed, INCEPTION???? Finally the academy got it right when they saw The Revenant.
