Cinema, yes, has its roots in characters, and it seems like most characters in modern film find their roots in Martin Scorsese. From "Raging Bull" to "Taxi Driver" to "The Departed," the films become less about plot and more about the on-screen portrayal of something transcendent, whether it's a violent boxer or a gangster or Howard Hughes. It's not always easy to pinpoint a Scorsese movie outside of the fast cuts and nostalgic soundtrack. Each of his films are as varied as they come, and on the heels of his recent triumph that is "Hugo," "Wolf" is a burst of energy into the comedy genre, full and grand and smart.
The story concerns Jordan Belfort, a broker who narrates his story (in a similar style to Ray Liotta's character in Goodfellas). He ascends the Wall Street ladder, moving to New York, only to form his own brokerage when his first job goes belly up. He tells us how he made $49 million his first year, which annoyed him because it was just shy of $1 million a week. If that doesn't surmise a character in one sentence, then I don't know what will.
He meets Donnie Azoff (played by the incomparable Jonah Hill), a heavy, bleached-tooth guy with a passion for money. My God, he drops his job the second Belfort is able to show him one of his own paystubs. He is driven yet no less eccentric.
The underbellies of the stock market are spelled out plainly in the first act by Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey in yet another stellar (if short) performance), Belfort's first boss. Jordan's idea is to please the customer, make them money, do a service to the community. Hanna's advice? Jerk off twice a day and capitalize on greed. The scene, which takes place over lunch in a fancy New York City restaurant, is one of the best of the film - sharply written and perfectly balanced between comedy and the darker elements at play.
And capitalize Jordan does. Pretty soon, his company "Stratton Oakmont" (how professional sounding) moves from selling penny stocks (literally 3 cents a share) to being featured as a headline in Forbes Magazine. The money is rolling in, but so is the suspicion of the FBI, and in true Scorsese form, crime is always coupled with some sort of balance in the end.
What a ride. As a person inpartial to Leonardo DiCaprio's more recent work, his performance shows flashes of brilliance, echoing elements of Charles Foster Kane and Jake LaMotta. He has power in his position, and Jordan Belfort is a man I would believe could start up a successful brokerage. There are two scenes in which he addresses the company on stage with a microphone, and the level of focus he has in delivering the message is staggering. I was almost taken back by the power of the words he was saying, and though we know him to be a con man, he was someone I would follow right off a cliff.
His interactions with Jonah Hill as Donnie are classic, slapstick routines, and it is clear that the level of craftsmanship in filmmaking was matched toe-for-toe with on screen chemistry. Donnie is about as memorable a character as any I have seen this year, and though he is reprehensible to the bone, it's all the more admirable a performance. Does Scorsese know how to cast, or what.
From "American Hustle," to "Nebraska," and now "Wolf," 2013 might become the year of the unconventional comedy. How to decide on a favorite movie in a year as diverse as this is becoming all the more complicated. The more I reflect on this film, the more I appreciate. We see a man essentially living the American Dream, yet through illicit means, is his fulfillment of the dream any less real? His company has brought so many good people wealth, but since he is a criminal, is it all void? Perhaps Gordon Gekk has a point when he figured that 'greed is good.' Afterall, these men are not prone to charity...
The movie shocks viewers with its level of graphic content (think office party orgies, heaps of cocaine in the air, language that would turn your mother's cheeks red), and for sure this is a film that will throw off many viewers and offend that many more. No one ever said characters in films had to be likable. They just have to be real. And through lines of cocaine and prostitutes and bottles of quaaludes, there is truth to be found at the heart of "The Wolf of Wall Street." Whether or not any modicum of it can relate to us is debatable. I don't care. My God, after all this movie put me through, getting rich quick still sounds like a pretty good deal.....
(Awards potential: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Hill), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction, Sound Mixing)
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