The Wolf Of Wall Street – review

The Wolf Of Wall Street follows the life of Jordan Belfort, the morally dubious cokehead stockbroker from the late 80s.

Yes the story is rather generic, the rise and inevitable fall of a crook. Its a little bit Wall Street and a little bit Goodfellas. We have kinda seen it all before, we know how this is going to play out. So what make it a good watch for us then?

The first two thirds of the film are very good, entertaining, snappy, funny and creative. The voiceover and breaking the forth wall being particular examples. To me TWOWS is a distance cousin of Natural Born Killers. The obsession with money, fame and drugs. Loads of fast paced cuts and the influence of commercials and brand names in everyday life. The fourth wall breaking, slightly unreliable narrator, are all clever devises to keep a cynical audience interested.

This is the fifth film made between Scorsese and DiCaprio, which still doesn’t beat Scorsese and De Niros record, that’s eight pictures together. They clearly enjoy working with each other, and  Scorsese gets the best out of Leo. TWOWS is a showcase of Leonardo DiCaprio. I admit I was initially distracted by Leos just for men black hair, I didn’t understand it. Why had they bothered? Then I worked it out,  it makes him look younger than his 39 years. His character is charismatic and charming and you’re not really bothered that he is a womanising druggy that is fleecing everyone.

The debauchery scene in the office and Belfort driving his Ferrari on dodgy Quaaludes are both highlights, they are very funny but it is jet black humor.

The standout scene stealer is Jonah Hill. Whether his scenes were all scripted or if he improvised some of them I’m not sure, but I thought he was great. Although already Oscar nominated for Moneyball, he deserves his nomination for TWOWS. It also features nice cameos from Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin and Joanna Lumley.

The film is about an hour too long, the third act is very generic and could have been told, either with the creativity of the first two hours or within about 10 minutes. Yes there are a lot more swears and boob than the average movie, this in itself is shocking, but in general it just means that the audience in the cinema is old enough to go three hours without checking facebook.

Definitely worth your time, one of Scorseses best from the past few years and another great performance from DiCaprio.