Polemic Yet Still Pure Scorsese

Rating: 7/10 (5 February 2014)

Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a master manipulator. Trained to be a Wall Street stockbroker, Belfort's life hits a small inconvenience when he is let go after the market collapses, forcing him to take a job at a penny stocks firm. That's when he gets an idea, if stockbrokers get 50% commission based on lousy penny stocks, why not sell them as if they were the greatest thing since 401ks. He starts his own firm, hires his own crew of borderline criminals and kicks the party into high gear.
Based on a largely true story about a scurrilous financial figure nicknamed "The Wolf of Wall Street", Martin Scorsese's newest feature largely succeeds in lampooning the financial markets of the eighties andwell the ones we still have today.. In fact the sheer lunacy of stock trading and market manipulation is summed up elegantly by Matthew McConaughey's character at the beginning of the film, "It's wazy it's woozie, its fairydust." The name of the game is to put the client's real cash into your pocket, while leaving them with imaginary money tied up in the stock market. Right? Right. So just two and a half hours to go.
After the principle theme is introduced, the rest of the film consists of Gordon Gekko Jr. and his conspirators making a name for themselves. That name is unbridled excess which actually leads to some inspiring moments. Between Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill's characters, the two do more drugs than a hippie crack den culminating in an overly slapstick moment involving a completely out of it DiCaprio driving a Lamborghini. There are constant parties, cheerleading, marching band playing and tons and tons of sex all throughout; it's all quite mesmerizing.
It's also quite numbing after a while when the audience comes to the realization that none of this is leading to anything. Scene after scene of debauchery spliced with sardonic undertones and cheeky narration and soliloquies does not a good movie make. The fact that Wolf of Wall Street (2013) has been getting polarizing reviews can be seen as a testament to Martin Scorsese's waning capabilities as a director.
Yet I wouldn't count out the old master just yet. Perhaps Wolf of Wall Street was meant to be polarizing. There is not a single redeemable character with maybe the exception of Belfort's wife Naomi (Margot Robbie) and that is done on purpose. We as the audience are not meant to find Belfort's antics amusing or heroic, though he considers himself a twist Robin Hood. We're meant to be appalled by the character and disappointed when he gets his inevitable slap on the wrist. Belfort is Gordon Gekko done right; the master of a universe we don't want to live in.
Scorsese's condemnation of the Wall Street stockbrokers are in may ways harsher than Henry Hill of Goodfellas (1990) or Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980). Belfort's id gets him into a heap of emotional and personal turmoil yet the true tragedy is he's left without catharsis or redemption unlike Ray Liotta who keeps his family or Robert De Niro who enjoys a crowded auditorium after the credits roll. There is no pat on the back or promise of reemergence. Belfort is forced to live in modesty and obscurity.
But Belfort did have his supporters among the audience that I saw the film with. At one point in the film Kyle Chandler's straight edge FBI agent in so many words tells Belfort he's going down. One audience member found it appropriate to blow a raspberry while the others including myself looked his was with scorn. Thinking about it, I realized that audience member was actually rooting for Belfort and the board members of Stratton Oakmont. Did he choose to ignore the inherent evil in what Leo DiCaprio was doing? Or was he seduced by his wily charms and excessive lifestyle? While being bombastic and lurid, The Wolf of Wall Street, like all good art, lets you decide for yourself if all the bacchanals and drugs were worth it. In one truly masterful coda, Belfort's comeuppance, Stratton Oakmont's dismantling and Kyle Chandler's train ride home are accompanied by a cover of Mrs. Robinson by The Lemonheads. Each tableau conjures images of The Graduate's (1967) final repose of Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross sitting in the back of a bus with the look of "what now" on their face. It's a good way to end a movie like The Wolf of Wall Street, I only wish it ended sooner.
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