Debaucherous Bliss

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2014)

Playful without taking itself too seriously, the Wolf of Wall Street knows exactly where it belongs and it is a finely executed and well made movie. We are brought into a fake looking fantasy world of debauchery bliss. This is not the film to explain the inner workings of wall street or what an IPO is or how exactly the company makes money from exploiting people. DiCaprio says outright speaking to our faces, "you don't care about this technical stuff lets just say I'm making a lot of money and its illegal" - YEEEAAY! And that expresses the point – follow me on a roller coaster ride of extraordinary decadent, nasty, fun, the kind that those of us in this business get to have. The movie doesn't show the hard work that is done to make the millions it only explores the fantasy that the millions brings to these young eccentric personalities that make it big fast. It is not satirical, nor is it a down to earth slice of life tale or even a much of commentary it is mostly pure playful entertainment.
Over the Top Caricatures are created as opposed to real people which add to surrealism. DiCaprio as the leader and Jonah Hill as the sidekick are an amusing frat boy/wallstreety combo that opens up new levels of laughably painful debauchery throughout the entire three hours. The plot moves fast but the pace is well managed since time slows and we can witness wonderfully creative, amusing scenes of the raw over-the-top decadence in its full manifestations. These scenes have a pseudo-realistic flavor and therefore are more laughable than anything else.
The invincible arrogance of DiCaprio's character is a lot of fun to follow. He knows he is doing wrong and seems to relish in the evil of it. Women are degraded and co-workers are humiliated in this dog eat dog machismo company that the Wolf creates and the Wolf loves every minute of it. There is only one brief instant when he becomes almost stupefied by his unbelievable invisibility.
This character trait doesn't really glorify wall street since it shows these types to be so perverse and not only corrupt but inherently a bit evil, a bit sick in the head. Scorcese is making fun of them by showcasing them in ridiculous sequences of slow motion while they are under the influence of this weird drug qualudes, that the film goes into. The exaggerated affect also gives a playfully over-the-top tease to these wall street types and that is what makes it different from other movies in this Wall street genre that took themselves more seriously. The fantasy of the pure debauchery bliss might seem glorious to some of us but overall most of us, I think, will root for the Feds getting the Wolf.
This is another extremely enjoyable highly re-watchable movie. Like during a late Sunday afternoon of channel flipping when you stumble on other Scorsese greats, such as Good-fellas or Casino, which ushers you into stopping for an indulgent peak, and all of the sudden finding yourself once again for the 10th time becoming so engrossed that you can't help but to continue watching to the end.