Saturday 15 March 2014

Movie Review: The Wolf of Wall Street


 The Wolf of Wall Street is a satirical drama comedy film that's based on Jordan Belfort's autobiography of the same name, a story about a young and promising New York stockbroker who runs a firm that engages in securities fraud and corruption on Wall Street in the 1990s.
First and foremost, it is to say that the film is not everyone's cup of tea for sure, due to its moral ambiguity, sexual content, vulgarity, presence of drugs and alcohol. We are shown, through Belfort, the dark, 'fucked-up' side of the world, in all its glory.
Jordan Belfort is a smart crooked bastard. His depravity knows no bounds. Armed with an amazing 'gift of persuasion' in sales and a mind filled with various illegal financial strategies that allows him to earn huge commissions on selling useless penny stocks, made millions upon millions during his day in the 90s, which leads him to a life of extravagance, drugs, alcohol, prostitutes.
He constantly speaks about money and the power it buys, the 'American Dream', his seemingly noble ideals, but the truth is that he is as vain, greedy, superficial, materialistic as they come. The film glorifies the excessive lifestyle it depicts, yet it is disturbingly fun to watch his indulgence in doing drugs and women in broad daylight, divorce his first wife who stood by him in difficult times for the seductive Naomi and his constant yearning to possess more money.
Despite his terrible personality, Jordan still manage to win you over, due to Leonardo DiCaprio's charming, powerful and magnetic performance, who effortlessly unleash a kind of on-screen charisma that's proven to be quite difficult to hate.
The casting of Margot Robbie as the sexy, gorgeous and vivacious Naomi Lapaglia, Jordan's second wife was perfect, especially the scene when Naomi spreads her legs open and tells Jordan he won’t be getting sex any time soon, with Jordan seemingly begging to want it, only to learn that she is in full view of a security camera in the end, is simply awesome.
The running time of the film is close to 3 hours, the movie does feel a bit stretched despite its brilliant pacing, good story and character development.

Overall, while some people will disagree with me on this, The wolf of wall street is an awesome film...a masterpiece of its own. It is a film that shows how easily, quickly and thoroughly the path of dreams can be corrupted beyond reckoning.


Rating: 8.5/10



The real Jordan Belfort



No comments:

Post a Comment