As this Sunday’s 71st Golden Globe Awards approach, Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf Of Wall Street” has garnered much attention.
Nominated for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, the film is fit to contend alongside worthy films “American Hustle,” “Her,” “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “Nebraska.”
Diverging from his last picture, “Hugo” (2011), a children’s movie in revolutionized 3-D, Scorsese’s most recent film is nothing short of charming. However, the charm might be hard to see blurred behind layers of debauchery, midget tossing and hedonism. But as each layer is peeled away like a cocaine-snorting, office-orgy onion, there is a core left and a message that has been told long before: Greed topples man. And, possibly, hookers topple man, too.
Adapted for the screen by Terence Winter, the film is based on the personal memoir of Jordan Belfort — played by Leonardo DiCaprio — a multimillionaire by 30 who served time in prison for fraud crimes.
The film shows the rise and fall of one of the most powerful individuals on Wall Street and his consequential demise from living a life of excess and deception. The raunchy cycle of self-indulgence that is Jordan Belfort’s life is brilliantly captured by DiCaprio.
This is the wildest, most goosebump-inducing, three-hour movie that I have come across. But, if you are looking for how Belfort destroyed the lives of many, this film is relatively disappointing. Instead, it’s an introspection into his life as he explains how he got away with his evil, genius plan through a persistent, first-person voice-over.
Although Scorsese is 71 years old, his style has not suffered. Voice-over is a huge element to how the story is told, reminiscent of “Goodfellas” (1990), when Ray Liotta narrates the life of Henry Hill with wise guy voice-overs. Although Scorsese’s use of voice-over has been heavily criticized, it allows the audience to get in the mind of the charismatic crook and into the feverish roller coaster that he is shackled to.
DiCaprio isn’t the only actor that had a stellar performance. Matthew McConaughey plays the role of Mark Hanna, Belfort’s Quaalude-popping, excessive, masturbating boss. McConaughey’s personality and infectiously witty demeanor steals the scene from DiCaprio with his satire of life on Wall Street. Jonah Hill also gives the performance of a lifetime as Donnie Azoff, Belfort’s right-hand man. This is the best performance that Jonah Hill has given since “Moneyball” (2011), proving he is a versatile actor.
As one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year, “The Wolf of Wall Street” is nothing you have ever seen — unless your life consisted of securities fraud, hookers, blow and “morphine, because it’s awesome.”
A version of this story ran on page 10 on 1/9/2014 under the headline "A movie with bite: the Avenue reviews ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’"
