Fear and Loathing on Wall Street - The Alphas have it in Scorseses controversial comic take on Financial high piracy.

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2014)

In the fantasy novel "The Blade of Justice", the warlike pirate Ganoolite raiders have a religion whose main sutra states "Life belongs to those strong enough to live it. Weakness is born to be crushed while those born with strength will thrive. Strength in unity! Strength in comradeship!" In many ways Belfort and his 'raiders' resemble them a great deal, and the Ganoolite mantra might not just be theirs, but of the film itself.
Imagine what a screwball comedy written by Ayran Rand might look like, and you have a pretty good idea of "The Wolf of Wall Street", a highly fictionalised and romanticised account of the life and times of infamous crooked bonds dealer Jordan Belfort. Scorsese has, to his great credit, never been one to condemn or judge, but to sit back and observe the power play and rules of the game of the enclosed and exotic worlds he peers into, whether it is the Cosa Nostra or Victorian society, Tibetan monks or Civil war era New York. There are no real villains in his world, for even the darkest and most vicious human being is shown to have a soul and a personal code, and it is perhaps for this reason that his films have been so consistently refreshing and rich.
That rule applies here, as Belfort and his financial 'raiders' defy the beliefs of both right and left, strive for nothing but the gratification of their own needs, and rob many people rich and poor of great sums of money to pay for them. They would be out and out villains in any other film or book, (just as the cast of "Goodfellas" or "Casino" would in most conventional thrillers) but Scorsese has again turned the picture around 180 degrees so we see it from their viewpoint.
The film's message seems to be that in any world and any time there will be the 'Alphas', the men and women who are stronger, smarter, more capable, then there will be the rest. No matter where they start off, these 'Alphas' will rise to the top and dominate the others because that is their natural destiny in the Evolutionary cycle. In other times and societies, they would be bandits, pirates, raiders, war bands, but in American capitalism they are Wall Street hustlers. They behave like pirates, celebrating their natural superiority and engaging in ever more insane and dangerous acts of machismo and bravado to show they do not live by the same fear and apprehension of their inferiors. They worship their war leader Belfort with almost fanatical devotion, aware he has taken them from the gutter into the stars, and he in turn is protective of his war band, seeing in each and every one of them the same spark of brilliance he possesses. Around this ever growing band of 'Alphas' are the inferiors, such as the dim recruits who fail the 'sell me a pen' test, the limp wristed Gay butler who is caught with his hand in the till, the weedy would be raider who cleans his fish tank on a big day, or the superficial shoe designer roped in for a scam, or Belfort's slutty trophy wife Naomi, and even to an extent eager FBI agent Patrick Denham (the hero in most other accounts but here almost a destructive inhibitor of natural selection). They are humiliated and denigrated, shown to be weak and valueless besides the Alphas. Like it or not this is a true fact and it is a brave author indeed who dares propose it in these times, especially using a relatively recent true life story to tell it.
"TWOFWS" is however quite un-Scorsese like in its style, which is blackly comic and defiantly un-PC. In many ways it resembles last years "Pain and Gain", though even less judgemental and even more applauding of its characters vices. There are laugh out jokes aplenty of various styles and kinds, including a post marriage bliss scene between Belfort an Naomi that seems ripped from the 1930s screwball comedies so beloved of the film historian. The heavy use of drugs is also made light of, and the comedy veers from 'Cheech and Chong' territory to one extended scene which comes straight out of Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (another film this recalls) featuring an accidental overdose of heavy duty pills, a Lamborghini and Popeye. However there are also some dark moments, the darkest of which is the breakdown of the Belfort's marriage, where neither party exactly covers themselves in glory and the screaming child between them is the confused terrified victim (hope they used clever editing for that?)
Technically the film is great, with good cinematography and music (as you would expect) and the acting all round is top grade. De Caprio evokes compassion and support for someone who should not have it, Jonah Hill continues his rise, bringing his comedy skills into the mix, Margot Robbie excels as Naomi., likable and hateable at once, and Kyle Chandler plays the FBI straight arrow well, teetering between hero and villain. Also of note are Matthew McConaguhey who plays the wall street broker that teaches young Jordan the ropes and conveys the film's whole message in his Native American style 'war chant' before and after a 'raid'. "The Artist" Jean Dujardin plays a slimy Swiss banker, Rob Reiner plays Belfort Senior, and the UK's national treasure Joanna Lumley is Naomi's sexy older lady aunt.
This is not a film for everyone, but it is a brave one, and an extremely funny and entertaining one for those with 'the strength to live it."