Captivating performance and cinematographic abundance

Rating: 9/10 (19 January 2014)

Question. What is this film about? Is it about greed, like the film Wall Street? Is it about exuberance, like The Great Gatsby? Is it about money, like Margin Call? Is it about white collar crime, like The Thomas Crown Affair?
The way I see it, 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is about conscience. Or, to be more precise, about the absence of conscience. Jordan Belfort doesn't have a conscience. He is a ruthless manipulator, who doesn't seem to care about others. He has no decency, no moral compass, no respect for anybody. He would be the perfect villain in any film.
But in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' he is not the villain, but the hero. He is the guy you love to hate. Everyone secretly admires a person like Jordan Belfort. Who wouldn't want to give the rest of the world the finger, and just do whatever you feel like doing? In Belfort's case, that means getting filthy rich, by all means necessary. The stock broker you work for goes bankrupt? You start your own brokerage. You find a woman who is more sexy than the one you're married to? You file for divorce. The FBI is investigating you? You bribe them - or at least try to. And in the mean time, you are enjoying a life full of drugs, drink, women, fast cars and easy money. Even if you wouldn't want a life like that, it's fun to watch.
Despite all their talk about 'not glorifying Belfort', there is no doubt that Scorsese and DiCaprio are doing just that. Take the scene in the Investor's Center, where Belfort calls a client and talks him into an investment in worthless penny stocks. The brokers around him fall silent, stand around in admiration and congratulate him on a great deal. Belfort is not shown as a despicable human being, but as a smooth operator. Even after he gets arrested and locked up, Scorsese shows him as a winner, playing tennis on the prison grounds and talking about how even there money can buy you anything.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. Movies glorifying criminals are usually great. 'Bonnie and Clyde' is a great film. So is 'Pulp Fiction'. And so is 'Scarface'. They make the audience suspend their normal ethics about right and wrong. When Bonnie and Clyde are killed, you feel sorry for them, although you know they deserve it.
The glorification of Jordan Belfort makes for a great film. Both Scorsese and DiCaprio are outstanding. The film contains so many great scenes, I don't know where to start. The restaurant scene ('Do you jerk off?') has the potential to become classic. So does the Steve Madden speech ('We should all suck your dick'). Also great is the Tarantino-esque conversation when Belfort teaches his friends how to sell stock ('I've never seen a Buddhist Amish'). But the absolute showstopper is Belfort crawling on all fours, wrecking his Ferrari and saving the life of his overdosed business partner.
DiCaprio's performance is so captivating, you almost forget to pay attention to the cinematographic abundance in this film. Already in the first few minutes, Scorsese shows how movie-making is done. We see a commercial, we switch to reality, the motion stops, the image changes, we hear the lead character talking to the audience, a car changes colour - all in one fluent succession. The film continues that way. Scorsese lets Belfort break the fourth wall by talking directly into the camera, he shows dazzling tracking shots through the trading room, and he even lets people think aloud. Add to that lots of sharp, funny dialogue, excellent fast editing and a great cast, and it's clear that 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is hard to beat as the best film of the year.