How does this Scorsese guy do it?
71 years old and he’s still at the top of his game with the energy of a 22 year
old.
The Wolf of Wall Street will do two things to you:
1) It makes you laugh till your
sides hurt, and 2) It makes you take a shower asap. Because it’s a rare movie
that makes you laugh and makes you feel guilty for laughing.
Debauchery has never been
captured so sharply on screen, and The
Wolf of Wall Street is a three hour long drunk story, cautionary tale and
horror movie rolled into one. It’s spectacular. It’s repulsive. It’s the Goodfellas of modern day gangsters
(investment bankers) and it’s Scorsese’s best since The Departed.
The protagonist Jordan Belfort is
a thoroughly unlikely character, and in some instances hilariously so. Some of
the things that happen in the movie are so over the top you won’t believe
they’re real. The funny thing is they are
real, and the amount of excess and overindulgence that Wall Street honchos engage
in is ridiculous. Show those guys this film and they’ll clap and cheer at
Belfort’s wrongdoings.
Leo, in the performance of his
career plays Belfort like any hotshot top level WS banker. I knew Leo is a
great dramatic actor but I never expected his comic timing to be this insane. Take
the performances of all the cast members of 2000’s terrific Boiler Room, multiply them by a thousand
and that’s still less awesome than Leo’s portrayal of Belfort. There is a ten
minute long scene where his character is completely bonkers on drugs, he’s
unable to walk, and he struggles to crawl to his car, somehow drives back home
still out of his wits, watches Popeye eating spinach on TV and becoming strong,
and snorts cocaine to come back to his senses. This will be used in film school textbooks in
the chapter titled ‘how to render a badass fucking performance’. This team of
Scorsese and Leo is certainly one of the greatest things to happen in cinema
history and we’re lucky to live in the era where this is possible.
The supporting cast is equally
terrific, Jonah Hill seems to be getting better as he ages and there’s Matthew
McConaughey, Rob Reiner, Jean Dujardin and a half a dozen other extended cameos
all bringing their own devilish scumbaggy charm to the movie.
There is a bit of outrage
regarding the movie being sexist and glorifying drug use. The joke’s on you,
because the movie isn’t misogynist, but you
are if you enjoy the stuff happening on screen. Portrayal of misogyny and drugs
is never defence of misogyny and drugs, and if you’ve seen any Martin Scorsese
film to date, you should know that by now. Not once does the film condone
Belfort’s behaviour, and Scorsese makes it a point to not victimize Belfort for
falling in the drug trap – he is shown as an innately narcissistic individual
who wanted to do the disgusting
things that he did.
Belfort wanted more and more
money, sex and drugs, and the film ultimately becomes him, offering more and more outlandish scenarios as it goes
on. Every scene is long, indulgent and excessive but so energetic, euphoric and
shocking you can’t take your eyes off it. It’s definitely not something you
should see with your parents. But it’s definitely something you need to see to
know that entitled assholes like Belfort get away with minor jail time while
others are branded criminals and rot in prison for far lesser offenses.
(First published in MiD Day)
No comments:
Post a Comment