Review: The Wolf of Wall Street

This could be one of my most anticipated movies ever, why? It's because of two names, Martin Scorsese (my favorite director) and Leonardo DiCaprio (one of my favorite actors). Their last collaboration was in 2010 in a film called "Shutter Island", while it wasn't one of Scorsese's best, it still is one of the best films of that year. Having said that, will "The Wolf of Wall Street" live up to the hype? Click on the jump to find out my thoughts.

Synopsis:
Martin Scorsese directs the story of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort. From the American dream to corporate greed, Belfort goes from penny stocks and righteousness to IPOs and a life of corruption in the late 80s. Excess success and affluence in his early twenties as founder of the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont warranted Belfort the title "The Wolf of Wall Street." -- (C) Paramount

The Wolf of Wall Street is an adaptation of a book/biography with the same title written by Jordan Belfort (who is also the lead character in the book which chronicles his life). I will just say this bluntly, this was a phenomenal movie and will surely make my top films this year (this wasn't released last year here in the Philippines). From the script, to the set pieces, and mainly down to the performances, this movie hits all the right notes. The story of the movie was sharp and it flowed very well throughout the whole movie, it didn't fell flat and even though I don't know much of the talks inside the stock market, I didn't feel lost with the movie or during sequences with this type of conversation because it was explained well. 

Speaking of story, none of this could have worked well if it wasn't for the smart and crispy screenplay by Terence Winter. This is probably one of the most quotable films I've seen in a long time, in fact all of the lines were amazing and I just can't help but laugh at all the funny remarks that these characters are spewing out and I can't help but feel convinced whenever Belfort opens his mouth. He just have this commanding voice (and lines) and you will feel convinced and you will definitely follow what ever this guy says. 

Now let's talk about the acting, so yesterday at the Golden Globes, Leonardo DiCaprio won the Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical, and you know what I have to say about that? He deserves it, this is quite possibly one of his finest performances yet and frankly my favorite performance of his. It was interesting to see the transformation of this cub to a wolf (pun intended) and to see this character slowly evolve, you can see how far he can go to get what he wants BUT this is not the most interesting thing about his performance, and that is the complexity of his performance. He can change emotions in just a snap of a finger like he is this outrageous guy then just turns to this hungry businessman who wants to have it all. DiCaprio had a lot of shining moments in this movie and one specifically is where he acts high off of drugs, it was too damn good and too damn funny it is one of the film's unforgettable moments.

Alongside Leo's Belfort was Jonah Hill's Donnie, this is the first time I've actually seen Jonah Hill act (I haven't seen Moneyball yet) and he was so damn good. As usual, he is one hilarious character, his delivery of lines were charismatic and he was really authentic. The same with Leo's character it was pretty good how Scorsese showed how this character transformed, although you can pretty much sense early on that the character helped shape up the character of Belfort. Another thing that I liked is the chemistry between him and DiCaprio, their friendship and partnership was believable and you can tell that both of this character influences each other in some ways or another. 

Even though Leo's character was a first class douchebag, he was accompanied by his wife Naomi who is played by Margot Robbie. Before judging her acting skills, I must first say this, she was gorgeous and stunning to look at, visually, she's one of the best things to look at in the movie. Now that I've got that out of the way, I will now say this, she did an amazing job in the movie. This i the first time I've seen her in anything and she just completely nails it, every time she appears onscreen, she just oozes glamour and strong sex appeal that definitely fits the character she's playing. In addition, whenever the scene requires her to be seductive, BANG, she nails it, whenever the scene requires her to be furious, BANG, she nails it. She was perfectly cast in the role in my opinion and she was not only good to look at but she was also one of actors in the movie.

Lastly, to finish the acting aspect of the film, the rest of the cast did a good job even though they were just minor characters, it's obvious that they gave their all to showcase a great performance. However the one actor who stole the show (aside from the leads) was Matthew McConaughey, even though he appeared in only a short amount of time, he made every minute memorable with one of the best scenes in the movie. I just can't get his hum out of my mind (and I keep doing it over and over).

Now that we got the acting aspect finished, let's now talk about the technical aspect of the film. Firstly is the cinematography of the film, all I have to say is wow, the "look" and "feel" of the film was believable because even though the colors pops out of the screen, Rodrigo Prieto was able to display the visual era of the film. In addition, Prieto outdid himself whenever he shows how party scenes plays out, like I said, the colors pop out, the addition of slow motion was great because it added more to the comedic value of the film. Secondly is the score of the film, now this in my opinion is the weakest link of the film because at times it didn't feel right for the scene it's going for and it just felt out of place and honestly at times it felt a bit forced. It still had its moments though.

Finally, all of these would not have happened if it wasn't for the genius of Martin Scorsese. The way he directs the movie was so damn good, he was able to capitalize on the talent of his cast and let them shine and get out of their shell, the camera work was amazing and his one-shots and wide-shots were captivating and definitely one of the highlights of the film. In my opinion though, the best thing that Scorsese did in this movie is how he set-up the tone of the movie. As each act of the movie progresses, the tone of the movie just gets darker and darker and that was a huge thing for the movie because it adds more depth to the comedic tone of the movie.

There was another aspect of Scorsese's direction that caught my eye, and that is the ongoing narration of Jordan Belfort. To me that added a whole lot of depth to the character because this was told in his perspective so therefore, it was basically made to tell his side of the story and to not make him look like too much of a bad guy, I thought that was a nice touch. Also, the inclusion Belfort breaking the fourth wall was a stroke of genius as well because it adds more to Belfort's narration and made it look like he is directly speaking to an audience. Finally, I was glad that they let Scorsese keep his original runtime because when I was watching this film everything fits together and if it is shortened, it will feel botched and missing key points. The 3-hour runtime was perfect, it was never boring, and the pacing of the film was very good.

In conclusion, "The Wolf of Wall Street" is a darkly comedic biography which features one of the most unforgettable tale of greed, sex and drugs. This is a film with magnificent performances from it's diverse cast, it is brilliantly written which consists of hilarious and smart dialogue and to finish this off, it is finely directed by one of the greatest directors of all time. This movie is definitely one of the best I've seen from Scorsese and DiCaprio and surely is one of the best biopics I've seen.

Grade:

Favorite lines:

Jordan Belfort: My name is Jordan Belfort. The year I turned 26, I made 49 million dollars, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week.

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Mark Hanna: You gotta stay relaxed. Do you jerk off?
Jordan Belfort: Do I jerk off? Yeah.
Mark Hanna: How many times a week?
Jordan Belfort: Like um... three, three or four times maybe.
Mark Hanna: All right, pump those numbers up, those are rookie numbers in this racket. I myself, I jerk off at least... twice a day.

Jordan Belfort: Wow.
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Naomi Lapaglia: Daddy shouldn't waste his time. And from now on... it's gonna be nothing but short, short skirts around the house. And you know something else, Daddy? Mommy is just so sick and tired of wearing panties.
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Jordan Belfort: I fucked her brains out... for eleven seconds.

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Jordan Belfort: Her pussy was like heroine to me.
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This is surely one of the funniest scenes I've seen in a long time.