HOLLYWOOD—Martin Scorsese is a man who knows how to bring out the best in his actors. Throughout my film criticism career, I’ve discovered two things about Mr. Scorsese. He’s a technical genius and he tends to have a muse that he works with each time. The first muse would be Robert De Niro, the second muse would be Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio and Scorsese have already teamed together for “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” “The Departed,” “Shutter Island,” and now “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Scorsese and DiCaprio’s latest collaboration may be one of the best to date. Be warned “The Wolf of Wall Street’ is a long movie. It clocks in just under 3 hours, which could be a deterrence to many moviegoers. As I always say, a 3 hour picture is a long time in the multiplex, but if it’s good, time will not matter. In this case, you won’t be looking at your watch. This picture tells the story of Jordan Belfort, who grew to fame earning millions on Wall Street and his downfall thanks to corruption and mob dealings.
The idea of categorizing this picture as a comedy does bug me a bit, as while it has comedic moments this is a full-blown drama in my opinion and nothing short of it. It appears this year there is a lot of ‘dramas’ being categorized as ‘comedies’ because of a few doses of comedic moments. Scorsese is at the top of his game capturing a slew of characters during a time period where money was at a fever high. Supporting players Jonah Hill, as Donnie Azoff and Matthew McConaughey as Mark Hanna bring unique perspectives to our main character Jordan.
Donnie comes across as a wannabe; he wants to be in the world that Jordan (DiCaprio) is in and is willing to do almost anything to make that happen. It’s by far, Hills best work to date. He has charm, goofiness, drama, wit and perfect comedic timing to ease the blow of drama that is delivered to the audience. On the other hand we have Hanna, who is also a wannabe in my opinion. He’s a bit more polished in appearance, but there is a childlike quality to his character. Other notable players include Margot Robbie as Jordan’s love interest, Naomi Lapaglia and Kyle Chandler as FBI agent Patrick Denham looking to take down Jordan.
The script written by Terence Winter is that of over the top spectacle, smart dialogue and debaunchery, but it works so good! The envelope is definitely pushed in the movie, which initially earned a NC-17 rating, but trimmed a few things down particularly in a bachelor party scene that may leave a few audience members speechless to say the least.
DiCaprio is at the top of his game in a performance that could finally land him that coveted Academy Award that has escaped the actor on so many occasions. He encompasses the character Jordan Belfort with distinct precision; he revels every single moment on the screen and exudes a natural charm about this conflicted guy. Jordan is arrogant, pompous, rude, cunning, greedy and a hard-to the core partier. He’s everything that America hates and DiCaprio portrays the character so well, we hate him even more. I completely forgot the name DiCaprio, which is a testament to fine acting and directing to say the least. Scorsese places himself in a tight race this awards season as Best Director, and I must admit he has a strong shot of possibly capturing his second Oscar statue come March 2014.
“The Wolf of Wall Street” examines a story that we’ve seen time and time again on the big screen, the rise to the top and the fall from glory, but takes it to new heights by propelling the element of frivolous spending, sleaziness and character assassinations as a mix of a character downfall, and one who refuses to acknowledge any consequences of his actions. That is indeed scary.