Review of The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) by Matthew P — 15 Oct 2016

The Wolf of Wall Street is a good film that was directed by the brilliant director Martin Scorcese who created a cinematic masterpiece.

The film is a movie adaptation of the autobiography of Jordan Belfort. Belfort is the owner of Stratford Oakmont who served three years in prison for defrauding investors for a massive securities scam and money laundering. Brody believes that "Its furious cinematic inventions are no mere flourishes; they're essential to Scorsese's vision of Belfort's story, and to the disturbing moral ideas that he extracts from it." (Brody). The life of Jordan Belfort was such an interesting and adventurous journey from his life as a meat broker to President of Stratford Oakmont. The film showed Belfort's hungry for sex, power and money through different stages in his life even if Belfort was already a family man and moral values do not matter as long as Belfort was getting all the best things in life.

Leonardo DiCaprio gave the funniest, unhibited, great performance in this movie. The main character of the movie is Jordan Belfort played by Leonardo DiCaprio. This is the fifth collaboration of DiCaprio with Martin Scorsese. Brody acknowledges that, "Leonardo DiCaprio, playing Belfort, he leaves impersonation behind and unleashes spontaneous bursts of energy that seem to tear through the screen" (Brody). One of the incredible performances of DiCaprio in the movie was when he was so drugged out (cerebral palsy face) that the actor crawled to his white Ferrari car rolled down the stairs and used his foot to open the door. DiCaprio captivated his viewers whenever the actor gave invigorating speeches to his employees with such convincing power that the recipients of the speech picked up the phone right away and made that investment producing call.

Jonah Hill played the character of Donnie Azoff, Belfort's partner in business, pleasure and crime. Hill played the part extraordinary well as can be seen when Azoff got high on drugs and fought with Belfort's in the kitchen struggling for air. Mark Brody states that "More or less the entire cast could fill the lists of nominees for supporting actors, especially Jonah Hill, as Donnie Azoff, Belfort's partner in business, pleasure, and crime." (Brody). Azoff's portrayal of a drug addict high on Quaaludes was close to the real thing as can be seen on his facial reactions and body movements.

The performance of Margot Robbie was astonishing where she played the sexy and beautiful second wife of Belfort. Brody states that "her consonants alone, floating away at the end of words, deserve an Oscar." (Brody). Robbie was able to catch the attention of the viewers especially when she got into an argument with Belfort with regards to other women and their children. Viewers could see the strong emotions built up throughout the years of Belfort being a womanizer.

Martin Scorsese directed the three-hour movie that is known for his movies like "Color of Money", "Aviator", "The Departed", "Goodfellas", "Casino" and "Gangs of New York". Brody believes that "Scorsese's freewheeling direction captures the autobiographer's raunchy, discursive vigor. He also introduces a great device to impose the protagonist's point of view: Belfort narrates the action even while he's in the midst of living it, addressing the camera with monologues that show him to be both inside and outside the events, converging on-screen his present and former selves" (Brody). Here, Scorsese was able to capture Belfort's point of view through narration while going through the motion. Scorsese was able to bring a good cast together in the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill of "Money ball", Margot Robbie of "Pan Am", Kyle Chandler of "Argo", Matthew McConaughey of "Lincoln Lawyer", Jean Dujardin of "The Artist" and Rob Reiner of "30 Rock". Scorcese brought together a great ensemble who showed emotional and moving performances all throughout the movie.

The special effects used in the movie were so realistic and well done. There was a scene where the ship Naomi was sailing going to Monaco bracing the perfect storm with waves of 20 ft. high. And the viewers could see the realistic waves, storm raging through the ship breaking windows, flooding the ship and drifting helicopter. The aspect ratio, framing and camera focus was so carefully directed and shot by Scorsese with big attention details. The viewers could see how well Scorsese pan in and out of the character of Belfort's whenever he delivers a speech making sure Scorsese get all the reactions of the attendees as well as Belfort's reactions. With the film's budget of one hundred million, viewers could see the elaborate settings, expensive costumes and grandiose film locations in the U.S.A. as well as in Europe.

The musical scoring of the movie was a mixed of an orchestra and ninety's music. Jenkins claims that "The movie barrels through time and space, boosted by punky songs whose titles say it all: "One Step Beyond," "Never Say Never," "Uncontrollable Urge."(Jenkins). The choice of music was so applaudable, there was this scene in Belfort's house party where the employees were celebrating getting high on drugs and having sex then the music "Insane in the brain" was playing in the background.

Proponents of bad reviews of the film "The wolf of wall street" make a strong case when Jenkins argues "Yet the zooming visuals don't propel the story to any place in particular. Sure, an FBI agent (Kyle Chandler) is nosing around, and Naomi eventually rebels against her husband's thing for other women, mostly hookers. But Belfort's character, such as it is, remains unchanged."(Jenkins) However this view overlooks how the overall story played together when Brody states "Scorsese's freewheeling direction captures the autobiographer's raunchy, discursive vigor. Scorsese unleashes a furious, yet exquisitely controlled, kinetic energy, complete with a plunging and soaring camera, mercurial and conspicuous special effects, counterfactual scenes, subjective fantasies, and swirling choreography on a grand scale." (Brody). The author believes the character of Belfort developed throughout the transitions in his career from being a meat broker up to the time of being the President of Stratford Oakmont. Belfort was able to redeem himself in the end from being a drug user to a sober Sales motivational speaker. The visuals used were so important in each scene to depict the excessiveness of one's addiction to drugs, women and money so viewers could take something from it. There was one scene in the movie where they braced the perfect storm and Belfort's still used drugs while in the middle of all the chaos. When the Italian coast guard rescued them, the plane that was supposed to pick up Belfort's family blew up due to seagulls going inside the engine of the plane. Belfort thought that it was a sign from God. From there, Belfort changed his ways; Belfort got sober and became a sales motivational speaker.

Some viewers may challenge the view that the plot of the movie was not entertaining and well thought of. After all, many believe that the film only showed "various Cheech-and-Chong-style slapstick scenarios play out repeatedly, just with different props." (Jenkins). Indeed, this argument seems to ignore Scorsese's directorial masterpiece, which is supported by Brody when he states that "Brilliantly, Scorsese doesn't hide the story behind the story-he makes the planning of a repellently decadent party even more absorbing than the event itself, and somehow manages to make a self-administered enema seem like part of the fun." (Brody). In the movie Director Scorsese showed the bad practices in the Stock Market, family drama between Belfort and his wife and children, camaraderie between fellow Stratford Oakmont employees and on top of this there were drugs, humor and sex involved so it is full of entertaining scenes and captivating shots. Viewers will never get bored watching the film.

Scorsese managed to extract astounding performances from his actors and in his latest collaboration with DiCaprio resulted in offensive, heinous and charming characters to ever appear on the big screen. As a movie, it is a must see.

Works Cited.

Brody, Richard. "THE WILD, BRILLIANT "WOLF OF WALL STREET"." Rev. of Movie. n.d.: n. pag. The New Yorker. 24 Dec. 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

Jenkins, Mark. "A Wall Street Predator With An Appetite For Excess." NPR. NPR, 24 Dec. 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

The Wolf of Wall Street. Martin Scorcese. Leonardo DiCaprio. Red Granite Pictures, 2013. Netflix, Web, Web. 26 Sept. 2016.