The Wolf of Wall Street

Rating: 9/10 (4 February 2014)

From Oscar and BAFTA nominated director Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, The Departed), I saw the trailer for this film, although it looked interesting I wondered if I would really watch it, but of course I was going to when awards season came around, this got nominated a good number. Based on the autobiography of the real man, Jordan Belfort (Golden Globe winning, Oscar and BAFTA nominated Leonardo DiCaprio, also producing) started working on Wall Street as a stockbroker, he was barely into the job and the firm fails following Black Monday, but his boss Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey) advised him when he makes the money to take advantage of it, adopting a lifestyle full of casual sex, cocaine and other drugs when successful. The stockbrokers job market is in a poor state and Jordan is unemployed, so he takes a job in a Long Island boiler room dealing in penny stocks, encouraged by his wife Teresa Petrillo (Cristin Milioti), he earns himself a small fortune with his aggressive pitching style and a high commission rate, and he meets and befriends small businessman Donnie Azoff (Oscar nominated Jonah Hill) who is keen to work for him and make money. Jordan and Donnie go into business together, recruiting a number of friends, many dealing marijuana to help facilitation, they create Stratton Oakmont, Inc. the name may be respectable but all runs on a pump and dump scam with customers on the telephone, and eventually Forbes magazine interviews Jordan, dubbing him the "Wolf of Wall Street", but this pres works to the company's advantage as hundreds of ambitious young financiers want to work for them. What follows is a lavish lifestyle filled with parties, sex and drugs, with Jordan hooked on sex with prostitutes, and an addiction to cocaine and hypnotic drugs, but Stratton Oakmont is under the watch of the FBI, and Agent Patrick Denham (Super 8's Kyle Chandler) is investigating, with the Securities and Exchange Commission involved as well, and meanwhile after a meeting at one of his parties, and an affair, Jordan gets a divorce and marries Naomi Lapaglia (About Time's Margot Robbie), and months later they have daughter Skylar. Securing the IPO (Initial public offering) of Steve Madden Ltd. Jordan makes an instant $22 million, he sees corrupt banker Jean Jacques Saurel (The Artist's Jean Dujardin) and opens a Swiss bank account to hide the money, under the name of Naomi's British Aunt Emma (Joanna Lumley), and he eventually smuggles the cash into Switzerland, but the schemes are almost exposed following Donnie having a public fight courier Brad Bodnick (Jon Bernthal) who is arrested. A string of bad news is happening, Donnie gives Jordan a powerful brand of Quaaludes to ease the stress, but they take large doses as their potency seems to have worn off with age, and at the point he is receiving calls from his private investigator Bo Dietl, he wants to avoid being tapped and being arrested, and at the wrong moment the drugs finally kick in, debilitated and driving he is too late to stop Donnie using the phone to Saurel, they have a bad fight, Donnie almost chokes on food, but Jordan uses coke to counteract the drug effect and save his life. Jordan's father Max Belfort (Rob Reiner) knows the shadow of law enforcement is hanging over Stratton Oakmont, he convinces his son to step down and escape legal charges, but when he does arrange a leaving party he changes his mind and refuses to back down, encouraging all his staff to keep doing what they are doing, of course the heart attack death of Emma mean trouble, so to avoid passport stamping Jordan and Donnie sail to Monaco and Switzerland, only to have the yacht capsize in a violent storm, and in the chaos Jordan sees their rescue plane explode because of a seagull flying into the engine, he sees this as God telling him to sober up. Two years pass, and during the filming of an infomercial Jordan is arrested by Denham, Saurel told the FBI everything, and is arrested in Florida for an unrelated charge, and meanwhile following one last night of sex with his wife, Naomi wants a divorce, and Jordan violently angry gets high on hidden cocaine and attempts to take his daughter away to stop her getting custody, but he only ends up crashing. With evidence against him overwhelming, to lessen his sentence Jordan agrees to help the FBI, so he goes to work wearing a wire, but they catch him out finding a silent note he showed Donnie telling him not to incriminate himself, Stratton Oakmont is raided and shut down, and Jordan is sent to a minimum security prison for 36 months, in the end, following his release Jordan made an innocent living teaching sales technique in seminars. Also starring Jon Favreau as Manny Riskin, P.J. Byrne as Nicky 'Rugrat' Koskoff, Spike Jonze as Dwayne, Christine Ebersole as Leah Belfort, Brian Sacca as Robbie 'Pinhead' Feinberg, Henry Zebrowski as Alden 'Sea Otter' Kupferberg and Ethan Suplee as Toby Welch. DiCaprio gives a brilliant charismatic and vibrant performance (you can see the real Jordan Belfont at the end), Hill is fantastic support as the larger than life buddy, this film is not afraid to show a high amount of excessive drug use and hardcore sex sequences, sometimes both combined, it does so in a funny way too, it is a great mix of laughable bad behaviour, dramatic and thought-provoking material, and of course illegal activities that really happened, it really is an exhilarating and interesting must see crime drama based on a true story. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay and Best Motion Picture of the Year, it was nominated the BAFTAs for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing for Thelma Schoonmaker, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical. Leonardo DiCaprio was number 94 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars. Very good!