Two Thumbs Up!

Rating: 9/10 (19 April 2014)

Ever had the urge to drive fast after watching a Fast & Furious movie? If you are on the page as me, then beware, The Wolf of Wall Street might make you wanna jump start a career in investment. It is exactly what the protagonist Jordan Belfort motivated his accomplices to do in it. There is always something that you could (not proudly) relate to in a Scorsese movie and in The Wolf of Wall Street its about money and who wouldn't love to relate to it.
The Wolf of Wall Street tells the rise of Jordan Belfort, a man with high ambitions and even higher exuberance, how he conquers the stock market, goes over the top and more. This could be considered a rags to riches story and the narrative takes a turn after the second act when the riches phase goes a notch above and becomes greed, power and eventually an inevitable descent. When you are this far down the rabbit hole there ain't no coming back to the surface, unscathed at least. A movie with excessive nudity, sleaze and drug use, The Wolf of Wall Street is exactly how its meant to be and Martin Scorsese has done a job which takes its justified crown at the box office and most likely even at the Oscars. One of the strong points of the movie is humor and Wolf of Wall Street packs it in tons. This is by far Scorsese's funniest movie till date that I developed a cramp in my stomach laughing so much.
The Wolf of Wall Street is about 3 hours long and not once did I feel an impatient bladder, I was rooted to the seat eager to know where Jordan was going with it. Agreed Jordan Belfort is not guy you'd want your kids looking up to and his ways are never strictly speaking legal. But despite that you want this guy to emerge at the top for his ambitions, this character is as fun as it can get and who brought life to Jordan? Leonardo Di Caprio of course! This is maybe his 6th collab with Martin Scorsese and you have to owe it to them, they do make a dynamic duo. Leonardo despite his charismatic and magnetic performance in his recent movies never landed him an Academy Award but who cares? He has proved that he is one of the greatest actors of our times who literally steals every scene he's in. For once I wanted to step back from the cosmetic layer of Jordan's pompous life and have a different angle at his ways. But Leonardo Di Caprio's performance was just so captivating and he just didn't give me a chance, there was no stepping back when you have delved this much into being entertained.
A stellar supporting cast promises that the screen is always filled with intriguing characters. Jonah Hill especially is a force to reckon with as Jordan's most trusted Donnie. This guy has become the go to guy for brilliant supporting roles and is getting increasingly entertaining, starring in almost all of the Academy Award nominated movies. This is indeed a boy's club where there's little importance for feminine characters and I felt the their roles in the movie were objectified. Of course it'd be Pan Am's Margot Robbie's nude scenes that'd be the talk of the day after watching this movie and it is indeed hard to take your eyes off her but you have to admit it takes a splendid performance to be noticed when you've got a star studded male cast to compete with. Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, Kyle Chandler and Jon Bernthal equally deserves a thumbs up for their short but memorable roles.
Its impossible to deduce how Martin Scorsese had done it. The man's edging over his 70s and has crafted a movie so modern, so energetic and with so much passion that even a younger director would be challenged to top it. I really don't care how he is being criticised for his apparent sleazy glorification of the stockbrokers or for the 506 F-bombs thats been dropped in the whole movie. He just delivered another masterpiece, an edge of the seat dramedy that is on par with most of the his as well as others' best movies ever. I enjoyed every frame of it and was left wanting more. Relentlessly funny, loud & ceaselessly crazy, The Wolf of Wall Street in undeniably one of the best movies of 2013 and is by far the best time I had at the movies in recent times.