The American Dream gone wrong.

Rating: 9/10 (13 January 2014)

The Wolf of Wall Street is one of those films that just isn't for everybody. It's loud, it's extravagant, it's insane and it's cocky. Oddly enough, the same can be said about filmmaker Martin Scorsese and leading man Leonardo DiCaprio.
You can't help but watch the nearly 3 hour long Wolf of Wall Street and not think that Scorsese is drawing a parallel to the escapades you see in the film. It's as if Scorsese is saying, "I don't care if I'm 71- years-old, I've still got it and I'm going to prove it." Marty pulls out every tool in his toolbox and dares the audience to take a ride with him, because there's not a goddamn thing anybody can do about it. Much like main character Jordan Belfort.
For those that don't know, Leonardo DiCaprio plays New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort. At the start of the film, Jordan is a straight-laced youngster just eager to break into the business. He immediately falls in love with the fast-paced wheeling and dealing of the stock market, but does he have what it takes to be successful in this field?
It's not until he has a lunch meeting with his boss Mark Hanna, played by a loopy Matthew McConaughey. Hanna tells Jordan the secrets of making it in the business. It's fairly simple really, or so Hanna explains it like it's a routine part of one's day, like making coffee or buying the newspaper. A line of coke here, a bottle of alcohol there. Viola, successful New York stockbroker.
Things seem to be going just fine until the market crashes. Jordan finds himself looking for a regular job. He's just not cut out for that and soon finds a loophole in the stock trading system. A way to sell penny stocks of two-bit businesses and haul in 50% of the take.
Belfort quickly finds a partner in crime in Donnie Azoff, a sweaty, buck-toothed wild boar of a creature. Azoff is played by Jonah Hill in the best performance of his career. He's the kind of guy you just want to strangle, but can't take your eyes off of.
In no time at all, business is booming and everybody is rich. They have so much money they literally don't know what to do with it. Booze, drugs and women flow through their lives on what seems like a daily basis. After the third or fourth scene depicting this debauchery, some might feel a bit exhausted by its redundancy.
This is all part of the director's plan. Scorsese is showing the evils that come with greed. These are normal people who have elevated themselves to a god like status through illegal activities. The only way they can deal with the new person they have become is to get high, have sex and drown themselves in alcohol. Not necessarily in that order, mind you.
Like with anything that gets too big, Belort and his company attract the eye of the F.B.I. Kyle Chandler is great as the aw-shucks agent Patrick Denham. Denham would like nothing more than to catch Jordan and return him to the boring, mundane life the rest of us are all sentenced to.
The Wolf of Wall Street has Scorsese's fingerprints all over it. From the music, to the kinetic editing, to the small, but memorable characters, it feels like Scorsese at his best. That's not to say that it's better than Raging Bull, Taxi Driver or Goodfellas, but it's pretty darn close.
The breakout star for me is Margot Robbie who plays Belfort's second wife, Naomi. Naomi is a blonde bombshell of extraterrestrial beauty. On the surface, she seems like just another woman passing through Jordan's bed. It's not until Naomi and Jordan are married that she truly sees what his life is like. It's too much for her to handle and Jordan's home life begins to unravel along with his professional life.
It goes without saying that, although it's an amazing cast, this is Leo's film. This is easily one of the best performances of his career. There are some scenes where he is literally red-faced and shaking with rage. The thought actually crossed my mind that this guy might actually have a stroke. Not the character, the actor. You can be a great actor, but you can't perform scenes like that unless you are truly passionate about your craft. During some of DiCaprio's scenes, the hair on my arms was actually standing up. A true testament to a great performance.
I'm not sure how The Wolf of Wall Street will be compared to Scorsese's other films, but I do know that it will be remembered as a daring, high- energy portrayal of the American Dream gone wrong.