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| Courtesy of Paramount |
In
my review of American Hustle a couple of weeks ago, I wrote that David O.
Russell had crafted the best Martin Scorsese homage in years. The Wolf of Wall
Street serves as the 71-year-old master’s reply to those who might imitate
him: there’s only one Martin Scorsese, and this is how it’s done.
Few
directors would have the guts (not to mention talent) to make a three-hour black
comedy with an amoral stockbroker as the central character. Scorsese (working
from a scathing screenplay by Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter) not
only pulls it off, he fashions a film so funny, with such a relentless pace, that
I couldn’t believe how fast the end credits appeared. No lie, it feels 90
minutes long.
You
don’t really watch The Wolf of Wall Street. It beats you into submission with
the sheer brazenness of its loathsome, yet fascinating, characters. Just when
viewers think they’ve seen the depths to which these sleazy crooks will sink,
both in their unethical business practices and their drug-fueled, sex-crazed
downtime, they do something even more shocking. And all the audience can do is
laugh in disbelief. I genuinely believe the only reason this movie wasn’t
slapped with an NC-17 is because of its legendary director.
Leonardo
DiCaprio (doing some of his best work to date) plays Jordan Belfort, a
real-life stockbroker who gets his start on Wall Street right before the big
market crash of the late-1980s. A wide-eyed idealist at first, he’s quickly
corrupted by the insane lifestyle to which his boss (Matthew McConaughey)
introduces him. Just as he’s growing accustomed to the life of a big-shot
stockbroker, Black Monday returns him to the world of cheap suits and penny
stocks.
However,
Belfort proves adept at swindling clueless low-income investors and decides to
set his sights on the big fish. He starts his own shady company – the
illustriously monikered Stratton Oakmont – that allows him and a few colleagues
(played by Jonah Hill, Ethan Suplee, Kenneth Choi and P.J. Byrne) to become
multimillionaires in their early twenties.
Due
to his well-known ethical tap dancing and decadent lifestyle, he quickly gains his
titular nickname, as well as the attention of a dogged FBI agent (Kyle
Chandler). His envied rise is nothing compared to his inevitable fall, though
where he ends up shouldn’t surprise viewers who’ve seen how Wall Street criminals
have been punished for their actions lately.
DiCaprio’s
career path has always been fascinating to me. He’s got the talent and good
looks that generally provide actors the easy path of brainless romantic comedies
and Nicholas Sparks melodramas, where they can make a ton of money while
sleepwalking through simplistic material. Not DiCaprio.
Since
he blew up with Titanic, he has primarily taken roles that have challenged
him as a performer (The Departed) or subverted his matinee idol features (Django
Unchained, The Great Gatsby). Heck, even his big cinematic reunion with Kate
Winslet (Revolutionary Road) was about the brutal destruction of their
characters’ marriage – not exactly what Jack and Rose fangirls were hoping for.
In
The Wolf of Wall Street, he continues to upend expectations in an interesting
way. He’s never done a straight-up comedy before, and now I don’t know what
took him so long. His work here – his fifth collaboration with Scorsese – proves
the guy is funny and fearless, particularly in a lengthy sequence of Quaalude-related
physical comedy that had me laughing so hard I literally could not breathe. The
high-pitched wheezing sounds I emitted might’ve been cause for alarm to the
people sitting on either side of me if they weren’t making the exact same
noises.
DiCaprio
goes to some incredibly dark places, unafraid to make his character look truly
vile if that’s what it takes to tell the story. It’s a role few A-list actors would
be brave enough to fully commit to. Surprisingly enough, Hill matches him with
an equally strong performance that no one could’ve expected when he made his
first big splash with Knocked Up and Superbad back in 2007. A second Best
Supporting Actor nomination (he got his first one for Moneyball) is
inevitable.
Also
worth mentioning is Margot Robbie, who plays Naomi, the gorgeous woman Belfort
wrecks his first marriage to be with. The Australian actress caught my
attention earlier this fall with her solid supporting work in About Time, but
that role was nothing compared to what she accomplishes here. Naomi knows
exactly what she’s getting into with a guy like Belfort, and she battles his
rampant destruction of their lives with the best weapon she has – her stunning beauty
and powerful sexuality. It’s a brave performance that could’ve been a disaster
with a lesser actress.
For most people, 71 is the age to put their
feet up and enjoy retirement. Martin Scorsese is not most people. Instead of
taking it easy, he has delivered one of the best films of his career: an angry,
blisteringly funny rebuke of America’s financial industry and the sharks who
run it, white-collar criminals who believe that being rich means they can get
away with anything. And what’s infuriating, Scorsese tell us, is they’re right.
The
Wolf of Wall Street is rated R for sequences of strong sexual content, graphic
nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence.
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