Wolf of Wall Street

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2014)

Everyone knows that Leonardo Dicaprio and Martin Scorsese are incredibly talented at what they do and when you put them together, great things happen. They have created works such as "The Departed" and "The Aviator" and are ahead of their time with their methodologies. The story of Jordan Belfort's rise and fall is one of the most interesting and exciting of its time. The hype surrounding this film since the release of the first previews has been astounding. This film has been in the works for seven years and the time commitment is well represented in the quality of the film. Belfort's character is difficult to play. He is an ambitious and hardworking man who loves to have a good time. I could not think of a more worthy person to portray his character than Leonardo DiCaprio. Rarely do you see a non-serious side of DiCaprio, but this movie made me realize that he can play any role you put in front of him. He had you feeling empathetic towards Belfort while he was stealing from the lower class and buying yachts named after his supermodel wife. You watch DiCaprio's character change as the movie progresses. In the beginning he is a naïve stock broker who had just passed his certification exam. Then he meets Matthew McConaughey's character, Mark Hanna, who is an already successful broker. Hanna teaches him that in order to be successful in the business, he needs to learn to relax by essentially just becoming a sex addict and coke-head. It turns out that Hanna is right. When Belfort switches over to the 'not so naïve' side of the business he finds success. During this time period you witness Belfort change into the greedy, money, coke addicted, quallude loving adultrist. But somehow when the Feds were getting closer to convicting him, you felt bad for him. Few actors can have this effect on you and DiCaprio is one of them. DiCaprio was the star of the film, but he was complemented perfectly by being paired with supporting actor Jonah Hill. Hill played the character Donnie Azoff who was Belfort's business partner. Hill played his normal self who was of course, hilarious. But he was also very serious in certain scenes and it added to the complexity of his character. Together Belfort and Azoff were a power-pairing of coke, qualludes, and hundred dollar bills. But not only were Belfort and Azoff party animals, but their who office was. Their company, known as Stratton Oakmont, would be a madhouse during business hours and essentially a strip club afterhours. Scorsese found a way to capture the true character of the company by showing Belfort giving empowering speeches during the workday and then throwing ridiculous parties that involved strippers and live tigers. Lets face it, a film with a one hundred million dollar budget can pretty much do whatever it wants. Most critics are saying that Scorsese went over the top and the movie was too vulgar. To be honest, they are right. But you can't say that it was not interesting. I loved every second of the 179 minutes thrill ride. It bounced from scenes of Belfort and Azoff smoking crack in a parking lot to Belfort with his wife and child back to Azoff blowing a line off of a strippers chest in the middle of a workday. The dialogue was extremely vulgar and I enjoyed every curse word that they said. The movie has a ton of character and I admire the work that Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Hill put together. My only qualm with this film is that it was insanely long. I said earlier that I loved every second of the ten thousand seven hundred and forty that were depicted. But I believe that Scorsese could have accomplished the same feats in a two hour time slot. A critic from Entertainment Weekly said that "But the director also has to know that his film could have used some trimming. Clocking in at just a minute under three hours, Wolf starts to repeat itself as we're given one scene after another of men behaving badly. If you're feeling charitable, you could argue that the movie's running time is meant to mirror its theme of excess. Then again, you could also say that it's just way too long. There's a reason roller-coaster rides last for only a few minutes." All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I would watch it again in a heartbeat. I give it an A-.