THE WOLF OF WALL STREET - Review

The Wolf of Wall Street

Biographical Black Comedy, 2013
3 hours
Screenplay by Terence Winter
Based on the book The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort
Directed by Martin Scorsese

Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio
Jonah Hill
Margot Robbie
PJ Byrne
Kenneth Choi
Jon Bernthal
Kyle Chandler
Rob Reiner
Matthew McConaughey
Jean Dujardin
Brian Sacca
Henry Zebrowski

"You have my money taped to your tits. Technically you do work for me."

I've been so excited about The Wolf of Wall Street since the trailer premiered a few months back. The trailer is funny, exciting, and insane. It's so perfect, I've watched it probably 100 times. Thank God it lived up to the hype.

I can't remember the last time I sat in a movie theater for 3 hours. Sadly, the one real criticism I hear is that it's too long. And it might be. A few minutes of fat could've been trimmed down. But whatever. Haters gonna hate, taters gonna tate... whatever the fuck that means.

The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, a stock broker who starts his own company and makes a ton of money... I can't really say a ton about the plot mostly because the main plot stuff is all about the stock market and I'm not about to explain how that shit works. Mostly because I only understand a little bit of how it works. I'm not a damned economist, get off my back. In a nutshell, Belfort gets his first job on Wall Street, but after a short time there, the company closes down, and he sells penny stocks out of a tiny building in a strip mall. Turns out, his experience with the big leagues helps out quite a bit, and he manages to make a killing off of selling practically nothing. So he takes the next natural step and starts his own company. And they're pretty successful. And then he and his insane buddies do a shit-ton of coke and fuck a ton of hookers. It's part drug addiction, part sex addiction, and all money addiction.

The movie plays out similarly to Goodfellas, in more ways than one. There are tons of structural parallels. For example, the film starts out with a flash-forward, and then after about 5 minutes, the movie jumps into a flashback where we're taken through the events of how Belfort got to where he is in the first scene of the film. And it catches up maybe 40 minutes or so into the movie, and it all feels very natural. Sound like Goodfellas yet? There are a lot more parallels, and if you pregame with Goodfellas before you see this, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Even at three hours, this structure works to it's advantage. There are a few moments that were stretched a bit thin, but for the most part, it works very very well. The movie also reeks of Scorsese. His definitive style is so remarkable and vibrant, he's the perfect man for this script.

But it's the characters that steal the show. A lot of people complained that nobody in the movie is likable, but I disagree. The character's decisions are unlikable. They're all self absorbed coke addicts that make awful decisions. And yet, they're all so charismatic that you just have to keep watching. Some films might tiptoe around their characters, but with Wolf, you're right there the whole time. You know everything about these guys that you feel like you're best friends with them. And all of this goes the same for Goodfellas. See? Parallels!

And it's no doubt that the performances are all excellent. DiCaprio is at his finest, probably his most memorable role since Django Unchained. He's fucking insane in this, from start to finish. So is Jonah Hill, who plays something totally unlike Jonah Hill. Even in Moneyball, you look at him and think "Oh, Jonah Hill," but in this, he's something completely different. I think it's his best role to date. And he's still hilarious. Even Rob Reiner, who doesn't do a lot of acting, his hilarious in his brief time on screen. And everyone is so damned charismatic and hilarious that it's impossible to dislike anyone. And I should definitely mention Matt McConaughey's brief, yet scene stealing performance.

I don't know if The Wolf of Wall Street is the best movie of the year, but it's most likely clinched a top 10 spot on the list. It is, without question, the best stock market movie you'll ever see. Watch Wall Street or Margin Call? Nah. Skip those. Wolf is the best damned movie in the genre.

Also, quaaludes. If you don't know what a quaalude is, don't bother looking it up, just wait to see it in the movie. Oh my good gracious, this movie would be nothing without quaaludes. Quaaludes make up a couple of the funniest scenes in the entire movie. Hell, one of the funniest scenes in 2013.

9.5/10