Martin Scorsese holds nothing back with his exciting, dark, full of excess, funny, disgusting, and appalling adaptation of the rise and eventual fall of corrupt stockbroker, Jordan Belfort. The movie just barely maintain its R rating, with being so close to be rated N-17. Scorsese succeeded in making one of the most entertaining and funny films while still keeping it dark and full of excess of every kind. If I haven’t already made this clear this movie is all about excess, from its nearly 4 hour runtime, which was cut down Scorsese’s regular editor Thelma Schoonmaker, to the crazy amounts of curse words use in it. Scorsese’s film set a Guinness world record for most curse words in a film. The f-word alone is explicitly used 506 times – an average of 2.81 times per minute! Its star, Leonardo Dicaprio, goes all out and makes us fully believe he is Jordan Belfort by his killer persuasive skills, all the way to the crazy amount of drugs he consumes. Dicaprio relieved in an interview that he was obsessed with playing Belfort in a the movie ever since he read the book of the same title.
Young Belfort failed to make his name Wall Street in an Orthodox way. We see this by Belfort beginning to work for a blue chip firm being led by charismatic Mark Hanna, played by Matthew McConaughey. On the first day Hanna invites Belfort for lunch at a very expensive looking restaurant. This is where the McConaughey chest bumping scene takes place. Belfort got laid off on “Black Monday” the market crash of 1987. He then began selling pink sheet stocks at a sleazy small firm, he states “I was selling garbage to garbagemen.” He then leaves that job and creates his own firm with Donnie Azoff, played by the hilarious Jonah Hill, and he gives it the name, Stratton Oakmont, to gain the confidence of the middle-class investors. His firm employed over 1000 sleazy stockbrokers desperate to take other peoples money for themselves. Stratton specialized in the stock fraud technique, “pump and dump.” This basically means they would artificially drive the value of a worthless stock through the rough, then selling it at a huge profit. After, the value drops and the investors lose their money. Belfort was sentenced to 2 years in prison for money laundering and stock fraud, he was also ordered to pay 110 million dollar to the victims of his debauchery, which he has yet to pay back.
Jonah Hill has a breakout performance in this hit movie. He thrashes his imagine as the funny guy in comedies to a legit actor who is something to be reckoned with. His role in this movie is of Donnie Azoff, Belforts business partner who is loosely based of Belforts real business partner Donnie Porush.
Belforts first wife Teresa Petrillo, played by Cristin Milioti, is a nice, respectable lady who cuts hair. She is always on Belforts side until he betrays her for Naomi Lapaglia, played by Australian actress Margot Robbie. Naomi and Belfort both live the same lifestyle, full of glamour and lots…lots of excess. I sort of find it ironic because Naomi quite literally personifies Belforts life at that moment, perfect. Belfort had all the money in the world and Naomi is basically like a showpiece of his immense wealth. Belfort buys a new house in Long Island, that is the biggest estate in the world. He also buys Coco Channels yacht, which he eventually sinks and a terrifying yet hilarious way.
Patrick Denham, played by the always fun Kyle Chandler, is an FBI agent who is tasked to take down Belfort and anyone who is associated with him. Belfort goes against his fathers, Rob Reiner, advice and invites Denham to meet with him on his yacht, before he sank it of course. Belfort then works with the FBI and gives agent Denham a the whole list of everyone that attended his wedding and also his personal cell phone line. Then, Belfort makes the biggest mistake yet, he asks Denham how much he makes. Denham replies with a low answer and this angers Belfort because he believes that hard-working people like him get screwed over financially. Then Belfort explains how he may be able to help his out with his financial problem by selling some stocks and the profit goes to him. Denham accuses Belfort of bribing him and then Belforts tells them to get off his boat. Belfort yells at them in a sick but comedic way, “I’m going to get heidi to lick caviar off my balls” This made my hole theater burst out in laughter. Then he grabs thousands of dollars out of his pocket and hurls it Denham as he walks away. While he throws the money he is saying “Look it your years salary, you know what I call this? Fun coupons”
In the words of J.R.R Tolkien Belfort had the disease under the mountain, greed, but thankfully he has lost it. He is now trying to repay the money he defrauded from his investors. Overall, “The Wolf of Wall Street” is a great movie, some might even go as far to say one of the best ever. Yet, this movie isn’t perfect, as none are. The runtime is far too long and some points are really boring. I would rate it a 9/10. I fully enjoyed it and if you haven’t seen please do, but you probably wouldn’t want to take your grandparents with you though.