Martin Scorsese has in his lifetime produced films that have enriched and challenged popular culture from
Taxi Driver to
Raging Bull to
Goodfellas to
Casino to
The Departed.
His films' inventiveness from the score, camera movements, witty voiceovers, the profanity and depravity of its characters and subject matter, especially within the mob/gangster genre, has seen his status grow in cinema from being part of small group of young provocateurs in the 1970’s to a true master of the craft and an auteur in his own right.
Scorsese lends his sensibilities to the stock broker world in The Wolf Of Wall Street and takes us down a crazy rabbit hole with him for just over 3 hours - and it never goes stale.
Based on the book by the real life ‘‘Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort, it's about the whirlwind life of white collar crime via the stock exchange. Belfort defrauded people of millions, whilst consuming copious amounts of illicit drugs, alcohol and sex. Which he outlives and then writes about.
Scorsese’s movie sticks closely to the subject matter as projected in the man’s book and takes one or two artistic liberties with the source material .Yet he delivers a powerful tale that speaks not only about the nature of America but the times we live in of consumer orientated culture. It’s quite telling that the techniques that Scorsese has used in his mob films are so perfectly suited to the “Wolf of Wall Street”.
From the trademark voiceover which has been tweaked as a to-camera address by Leonardo DiCaprio, which re-enforces the idea that we are seeing things from Robert Belfort’s perspective.
Depravity and excess is to be expected in mob flicks since they live outside the law - the live fast/die fast mentality. Well, Belfort is one of us, a man who wants the car, the women, the
big cars and in this material obsessed world it seems there’s little that distinguishes us from the criminals. Robert Belfort becomes the prototype of what Crass materialism and consumer culture will ultimately lead to and it’s scary.
The performances in this film are brilliant, Leonardo DiCaprio does some of his best physical comedy ever. He shows range in his acting abilities, Matthew McConaughey and Jonah Hill are not far behind. Actually the film is littered with great performances. The other brilliant thing about this movie is that It does not moralise by telling you this is bad - it just shows you.
Admittedly the year has just begun but this is so far, the best film I’ve seen in 2014. The film has that right balance between fun, outrageousness, drama and insights into life. In our world that is saturated with BEE and black diamonds, this movie for me is a wake-up call by showing the trappings of unchecked greed, narcissism and ego.
Verdict: Do yourself a favour watch this. Buy the DVD/blueray too - it's a keeper.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Trailer watch: New segment I'm adding onto the reviews whereby I give you heads up on some of the coolest and not-so-cool trailers on upcoming movies. Let’s get cracking ...
They get the bells: The Amazing Spiderman 2: Rise of ElectroYes, the blue on spidey's costume looks too cartoony but there seems to be a story here. Even if we’ve seen it before Spidey vs Goblin but De Haan (from the flick Chronicles is the man) so yeah im stoked. I'm still unsure about Jamie Foxx though.
They can Suck on cheese: Jack Ryan: Shadow RecruitTom Clancy’s character, who has been played well by Harrison Ford (Clear and Present Danger), by a suave Alec Baldwin (Hunt for Red October) and farted on by Ben Affleck (The Sum of all Fears) is now being butchered by the studio, with Chris Pine in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recuit.
Clearly the trailer suggests the studio forgot what made Jack Ryan interesting in the movies - the fact that he is
not James Bond nor Jason Bourne. He is an analyst not operative. He's more comfortable behind the desk not in toilets shooting up guns. That's why when he is caught in such situations, we have fun. But yeah, I hate this trailer and it don’t bode well for the movie…ja nee Hollywood.
On the TV front Check out the new
Game of Thrones Season 4 trailer. One word ; EPIC! If you’ve read the book, you must be wetting your pants. If you haven’t, get ready to be blown away come April.