A Funny, Energetic Ride That Will Keep You Glued to the Seats till the Very End

Rating: 8/10 (5 March 2014)

It's always funny to me how, so many people think that Scorsese only makes mafia and gangster flicks but when you actually look at his filmography, only like, 10% of his films revolve around gangsters or the mafia. Scorsese's recurring theme in his movies doesn't seem to be crime, but characters dealing with guilt. Whether it be Charlie from Mean Streets, Jake LaMotta from Raging Bull, Henry Hill from Goodfellas, or even Frank Pierce from Bringing Out the Dead. Since he's explored this theme so many times now, can Scorsese still deliver? Let's find out!
The plot follows Jordan Belfort, a rich, highly successful stockbroker who starts out working a low-level job at an established Wall Street firm where he quickly becomes attracted to the world of stocks but loses his job due to Black Monday. Then, he starts his OWN brokerage firm titled "Stratton-Oakmont" with his new friend, Donnie Azerto and from then on, the company skyrockets to the top by doing pump and dump scams and they live in a world full of sex and drugs while the FBI is hot on their trail.
The thing that surprised me most about this movie was how FUNNY it was. When you think of Scorsese, you usually don't think of things that are funny but this movie is so over-the-top, it's hilarious. Every character in this movie is portrayed in an over-the-top fashion, they all do things you don't expect any normal human being to do. They have sex in the office in front of everyone, they get their dicks sucked in public, and they do more drugs than you could ever dream of in your wildest imaginations. This makes for a very funny and entertaining film because as you watch it, you can't help but laugh at how absurd it is but also fantasize about living the life these guys are living in.
But while this is a comedy film, it also has a lot of heavy drama in it. This movie has a bit of a bipolar tone to it, one minute you might be laughing hysterically, and the next minute you might drop your jaw from being incredibly shocked at what you just saw. For example, there's a scene where Jordan gets so overwhelmed by the huge amounts of Quaaludes he took, he falls right down to the floor and can't walk and there's a lot of physical comedy in this scene as Jordan tries to make it down a set of stairs and we're laughing and enjoying ourselves for a while but then, all of a sudden, we see Jordan's baby daughter walk into the room, seeing her dad all high on Quaaludes and to quote RedLetterMedia, it feels like a punch to the gut and that's what the whole movie felt like to me. One minute there's laugh-out-loud comedy, next minute, there's heavy, intense drama that might get hard to watch. I'd have a problem with this if it felt very schmultzy and heavy-handed but Scorsese depicts it very raw and brutal so it feels natural and we don't find the shift of tone too jarring to watch.
While Jordan Belfort is definitely a douchebag, DiCaprio surprisingly makes his character very likable for a lot of the film. He has this magnetic charm and confidence to him that makes the audience like and root for him even when he's doing terrible things and there's moments where we see essences of humanity to him such as when he gives his employee five times the money she needed to support her kids which are really important to make his character be at least SOMEWHAT sympathetic but at the same time, he never loses the douchebag attitude that makes you WANT to hate him, but you don't because deep down, we all sort of want to do the things he does throughout the film. Everyone else in the cast was strong too but the only real standouts were Jonah Hill as Donnie Azerto and Margot Robbie as Jordan's wife, Naomi. In this film, I didn't see Jonah Hill at all, I saw Donnie Azerto, THAT'S how good he was. And this has GOT to be the breakthrough for Margot Robbie, who seems very real and natural as someone who tries to TOLERATE her husband's wild behavior, but ultimately gives up as she realizes throughout what kind of man he is.
The editing in this film is incredibly frenetic and energetic. There's a lot of slow-mo, freeze-frames, jump cuts, and there's a lot of moments where they'll make you think nothing went wrong for our protagonist, next thing you know, they cut BACK to show what REALLY happened and this really helps get you into the mind of Jordan Belfort as he's constantly on drugs and not always aware of what's going on.
But despite how good those things were, there are some problems with the film. I've noticed that the script has a habit of spoon- feeding everything to the audience. Now, I understand that not everyone understands how Wall Street works so we need to explain it in a simple way for them to understand but I don't like how there's so many scenes where the visuals speak perfectly for itself but yet, they still have to narrate it for us. Come on Scorsese, we're not that stupid. I also felt that outside of Jordan, Donnie, Naomi, and Jordan's dad, Max Belfort, the rest of the characters just sort of came and went without us knowing them a whole lot. I wished we could've spent more time to know them a little better.
But overall, this is a funny, energetic film that will keep your eyes glued to the screen by either making you laugh your balls off or by making you gasp at what's happening to our characters. If you are a Socrsese fan, or even just a fan of good cinema, you'll love it. 8/10