Obnoxious, Distasteful, and Borderline Offensive

Rating: Null/10 (31 December 2013)

When The Wolf of Wall Street first begins its nearly three hour running-time, you aren't exactly sure when the opening studio titles end and the film begins because of Scorsese's stylized letterboxing academy ratios with certain scenes, emphasizing a television type framing as opposed to the rest of the film's widescreen cinematography. The questioning doesn't stop there; after the entire year of anticipation, the story of Jordan Belfort unfolds for the first hour, I continued to wonder when the real The Wolf of Wall Street was going to start.
I follow numerous accounts on Instagram, on Christmas morning I came across a screenshot someone took on their iPhone of an elderly female critic reviewing The Wolf of Wall Street. With rotten icon from Rotten Tomatoes and the preview of her review stating, "Too much sex and drug use," I rolled my eyes in agreement with the Instagram account of the unfair criticism. Then I saw The Wolf of Wall Street and realized it was not just a senior citizen compliant, I think Scorsese crossed the line of fun and entered an area of repugnance.
I may be the only member of my age group (18-24) who complains about the overuse of sex, greed, and drugs, call me an old man, but after a three hours enough is enough. If The Wolf of Wall Street had some sense of a moral compass that drove the narrative, I may not criticize this aspect so harshly, but neither Scorsese nor the screenplay has anything to offer the audience to latch onto in selfish, unlikable, pathetic characters.
Scorsese had to tell the story of Jordan Belfort and I'm sure his life was as unruly as the film paints it to be, but he abandons any sense of class. This is not the Scorsese we all have been enamored with the past. The Wolf of Wall Street is the type of film to be enjoyed by the same audience as The Hangover, not award voting Academy members or critical film analysts. I kept having the feeling I had seen this exact same film in May with flashier costumes, called The Great Gatsby. Wolf is not that far off from it, a few steps above Gatsby in terms of quality filmmaking, but the empty feeling it gives off to the audience is no different.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese's fifth collaboration has been brewing in the minds of everyone who enjoyed their previous films and hope that one day they can finally "click" the way Scorsese did with Robert DeNiro back at the apex of their careers. The best thing The Wolf of Wall Street has on its side is Leonardo DiCaprio's eminent charm; he melts his audience and hits some of the greatest highs of his acting career. Certainly deserves to be included in any of the Best Actor races this award season.
The Wolf of Wall Street's problems do not stem from the technicalities of filmmaking. Though the storytelling half of Scorsese's job that could have been executed much better, at least he forms the shell of a quality movie. His films typically have a masterwork of film editing; the editing for Wolf is no exception. It is like DiCaprio is snapping his fingers the whole for the three hours. The look of the film is another strength. The juicy cinematography looks as if it was painted with the infinite money made my Jordan Belfort.
Some of Scorsese's past film successes find themselves drilled into The Wolf of Wall Street. The first person point of view from Goodfellas and Casino is put to good use, it even grows in this film. DiCaprio not only narrates the majority of the film, but also pulls a Woody Allen and looks directly at the audience and speaks to us like we are having a private conversation with Jordan Belfort. His obsession with wealth and drugs damaging his life and family echoes from Raging Bull, but this works against Wolf. In Raging Bull we saw Jake LaMotta beat his wife, but we also felt his guilt. There's a scene in Act Three that feels like a direct homage to Raging Bull, but Wolf lacks the humanity of that film. Scorsese wanted to isolate us from the world in Wolf like he did in Taxi Driver, where we understood the violence Travis yearned for, but here Wolf fails to tug at the same cords with greed as Taxi Driver did with loneliness.
At the end of the day does the greedfest of The Wolf of Wall Street matter? No. If it were not so hollow, it could have been a fun movie, but I didn't even buy into the "enjoyment." People around me were laughing at the slapstick comedy, but I did not find most of it funny, not even DiCaprio's raved physical comedy scene in the last section of the film. I shrugged my shoulders after the first thirty seconds and then the scheme continued for five more minutes. Not a bad film, a bad narrative, and a poorly communicated film. If I retitled the film, it would read: The Disappointment of Wall Street.
Grade: B-
Rating: 6