Perhaps quite appropriately considering its run-time, although the beauty is, I'll never feel it. For today I review:
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013 dir. Martin Scorsese)
Why I bought it/Why I liked it:
Martin Scorsese is responsible for one of my all-time favourite movies in Goodfellas. The man's body of work is wonderfully impressive with a diverse number of subjects. But it's when he deals with the crime genre, he shines the most.
The Wolf Of Wall Street for me harks back to the double impacts that both Goodfellas and Casino delivered. Sweeping arcs, never letting you come up for air, beautifully edited so everything feels like it's coming at you at 90 m.p.h. Often it's said that some of the best movies are the long ones that don't make you realize its run time and The Wolf Of Wall Street fits comfortably in that category.
It's also noticeably the movie that made me love Leonardo DiCaprio finally. I'd enjoyed some of his films prior to the albatross that was Titanic (or even Lurhmann's Romeo and Juliet) which made him the pretty boy teen idol he didn't want to be. Regrettably, follow up appearances did little to dissuade my opinion of him. I felt he was the weakest thing in the all-star adaptation of Man In The Iron Mask and it wasn't until Christopher Nolan's wonderful Inception that I actually started giving a damn about Leo.
Scorsese obviously saw something in him to keep casting him in his movies and other respectable actors followed suit. Then much like Matthew McConaughey fought his way out from being 'the rom-com' guy, Leo had shown everyone what many in the know already knew, he was a hell of an actor.
I'm not going to say I was one of those guys, much like McConaughey, it took a while for me to warm up to Leo and following this masterpiece, I become more interested in his output afterwards.
Oh and this was this film I was screaming at him to win the Oscar for. Mainly for The Popeye/car sequence alone.
If I think it'll stay in the collection:
Not only am I confident that it'll stay in the collection and be a fun watch but I'm also under the firm belief this will the first film in the collection to grab a perfect score, such is my love for this film.
So without further ado, let's fire up the PS4 and learn of the exploits of Jordan Belfort...
The review:
As expected it's a masterclass in filmmaking from one of the old masters and an absolute joy to watch.
In hindsight, it's always a bit boring doing reviewing a movie I really like as they don't seem like fun to read back and it's difficult using too many positive words in a short paragraph as they don't come as naturally to me being the pessimist that I am.
As such, it's a tour de force performance from DiCaprio. It's a movie about a horrible man, he pretty much turns to the camera, breaking the fourth wall, informing us all that he's a terrible man and yet we still have a connection to him, we still will him on because he's so fucking charming and charismatic. This is the power of DiCaprio's performance and a wonderful showcase of his abilities.
That's not to downplay the supporting actors and actresses that this film provides again. Dependable hand Jonah Hill has some absolutely astounding moments as best friend Donnie and once again shows he's much more than a simple comic actor. Margot Robbie made her name in this film and makes quite the impact as Jordan's long-suffering wife. A peach of a role to land, she knocks it out of the park in this.
Other great turns from Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner and Jon Bernthal are peppered throughout the movie and of course, the dialogue takes centre stage here, a blizzard of swear words that just leave the audience breathless and wanting more. Scorsese weaves a beautiful tapestry of images and the editing is sublime.
Leo really wanted to help fund Jackass 4...
The Wolf Of Wall Street is a supremely enjoyable way to kill near three hours of your time and is a fine example of where others have stumbled, Scorsese's quality keeps coming through.
Should it stay or should it go?
Of course, it's an easy keep in the collection and it gets the distinction of getting the perfect score of 10 out of 10. There will be others in my collection I know that'll get the perfect score but they will be revealed in due time.
As such we're turning the clock back again with a lengthy trip to the wild west and a quartet of movies by a certain director. All shall be revealed next time...
Until next time, I remain,
Matt Major
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