Scorsese delivers a fantastic and wickedly funny film displaying the ridiculous lengths people will go to to get wealthy, and the insane things people do with such absurd wealth, all led by the phenomenal acting of Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill.
DiCaprio plays the devilishly charming Jordan Belfort, a man who was corrupted by Wall Street, and particularly by the evil ways of his first boss, Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey) [I told you he was having a great year!]. He came into the business a naive, hopeful young man who wanted to help other people make money, and slowly realized that Wall Street has very different intentions. But it’s not until after the devastating effects of Black Monday force him to take a small job at an “Investment Center” and he learns about penny stocks that his rise to infamy begins. With the help of neighbor Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) and a few other shady stockbrokers, he starts his own fraudulent business that he calls Stratton Oakmont. Using their skills of manipulation and deceit, they soon make millions, and that’s when the insanity begins. Using his newly acquired wealth, Belfort buys lavish homes, cars, and a beautiful yacht, as well as an obscene amount of every type of drug you can imagine, and numerous prostitutes. Though he eventually marries model Naomi Lapaglia (played by the gorgeous Margot Robbie), after divorcing his previous wife, that doesn’t prevent him from continuing to abuse drugs and hire prostitutes at every available opportunity. Of course, his activities attract the attention of the FBI, who promptly begin to investigate him. Belfort hires a shady lawyer (Jon Favreau) to cover his illegal activities and tries to hide his money in offshore accounts in Switzerland (where we meet Jean Jacque Saurel, played by Jean Dujardin). However, he eventually gets caught, and in a deal to lessen his jail time decides to rat out everyone who was involved in his illegal activities.
DiCaprio is in top form for this film, and it’s one of his best roles in years. I sincerely hope he gets some sort of recognition for this film because he absolutely deserves it. He narrates much of the film, and even when just his voice is on screen, the voice acting is phenomenal, and read with such intensity that you can practically see him yelling at you. DiCaprio plays one of the worst types of villains imaginable: a charming one. Even when he’s yelling and clearly acting insane, his crew (and even we in the audience) hangs on to every word he says. Because of the pervasive drug use, DiCaprio is forced to show off his physical comedy acting as well, and it is hilarious to watch. He is indeed a wolf, and his company is full of animals as well; seeing the madness in his company is frightening and compelling. It also goes to show you how crazy people get to earn money and how much crazier they can become once they have it; midget tosses are discussed in board meetings as if they are a serious matter, prostitution costs are talked about as if they are a cost that can be legitimately explained, and so on. It’s so insane that you can’t believe it’s based on true events! Jonah Hill does a great job as well as the equally insane co-founder of Stratton Oakmont, for many of the same reasons that DiCaprio is great: intense acting, hilarious dialogue, and a charming persona. He is even more brash and cocky at times than DiCaprio, which doesn’t seem possible, but Hill manages to do so with ease. The two of them have a great chemistry on screen, and it makes their insane actions that much more fun to watch.
Another thing that needs to be said is that Scorsese does a perfect job with the pacing of this film. It is one minute shy of a 3 hour film, which is daunting to think about. But the film had such a great rhythm to it that it didn’t feel that long at all. Plus this film is definitely one of the funniest films of the year, so that keeps you engaged throughout the whole experience. This is dark comedy at it’s finest. It’s like a car crash on the highway: you know it’s not going to be a pretty sight, but you can’t help but look at it.
FINAL DIAGNOSIS: 10/10
Scorsese delivers one of the craziest, most intense films I’ve ever seen (I can see now why it was nearly rated NC-17), and also one of the funniest movies of the year. DiCaprio and Hill make a 3 hour movie fly by, and I would not be surprised if this film got plenty of award nominations (and hopefully some wins). Definitely worth watching on screen; a movie this big and bombastic shouldn’t be seen any other way!
Dr. A's Diagnoses 