The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Originally published in The Daily Nebraskan, 01-13-2013

When given the right material, Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest living directors. His latest masterpiece “The Wolf of Wall Street” feels like it completes a trilogy of films he began a long time ago with “Goodfellas” and expanded in “Casino.”

Each of these films follows the main character, Our Man, who tells us everything about his life, from
his perspective, from the point where his life first matters all the way up to his spectacular downfall and emasculation. These films also all have close, family-oriented groups, crime, excess, drugs, brisk editing, violent marriages, a colorful rainbow of swear words and a meteoric rise through the social castes of our country. Above all, these movies also ask us to sympathize with some pretty ugly characters as they chase the American Dream.

That idea is more prominent in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which follows common stock trader Jordan Belfort from his humble beginnings through his role as obscenely wealthy and seedy head of Stratton Oakmont, a company that made its name by unloading penny stocks on gullible investors. Belfort is not a good person by any means, but his ambition is impressive. There are many people like him. The fact of Belfort is not so important. Here, it’s the idea of his success that drives the film.

Belfort is a vulgar go-getter who makes ridiculous amounts of money for doing nothing, while he thinks he’s kicking all the ass in the world. All the while he stomps and cheers with his friends over all their “achievements,” and all the money, women and drugs they acquire. In the end, it amounts to little but hyper-masculine posturing. Many of Scorsese’s pictures are about characters such as this. They speak directly to us, and although they say very much, they’re only trying to tell us what they think it means to be a man.

The themes Scorsese works out over and over again in his movies are the same themes many great writers have worked over for centuries: love and its complications, greed, betrayal, vice, religion, brotherhood, social divisions and so on.

“The Wolf of Wall Street” is a gangster movie with brokers instead of wiseguys. They do a lot of drugs, which is just another way to display their wealth and status. They get a lot of women because they can. The sex and drugs stand out in the early scenes and resonate for the rest of the film. The experience of the characters is intensified to bring it closer to us, and that experience isn’t always pleasant. The pace, content, and attitude of the film all border on exploitation, but it retains style and sophistication as the characters burn their way to oblivion.

Scorsese’s greatest strength has always been working with his actors. Leonardo DiCaprio injects a snide Gordon Gekko-type affectation to his usual swaggering performance. Jonah Hill is surprisingly versatile as Donnie Azoff, the degenerate vice president of Stratton Oakmont. Who’d have thought Hill would mumble the line, “Do some crack with me, bro!” in a serious Martin Scorsese picture rather than a Judd Apatow-produced comedy?

“The Wolf of Wall Street” is also something of a comedy, nodding and winking the whole way through, while slipping in and out of a drug-induced coma. Hill provides the fulcrum in many parts throughout the film, but the ensemble cast, with actors too various to name, each contribute to an epic farce of vice and greed in the modern free world, and it’s pretty damn fun to watch.

 The fact that Martin Scorsese directed such an electric, edgy film at 71 is more than noteworthy. “The Wolf of Wall Street” is one of the best films of the year. Scorsese has stated that he plans to direct two more films, then retire. He’s at the top of his form now, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.