Leo DiCaprio gets to play a modern-day version of Jay Gatsby (who he played earlier this year) in the Wolf of Wall Street. Director Martin Scorcese fills Gordon Gekko with copious amounts of drugs, women, and possessions that even he might blush a little. The Wolf of Wall Street, though a bit too long, modernizes materialism and immediate gratification better than most other films have attempted.
Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is first introduced to the audience throwing little people onto a dartboard. He lives the life of excess. His options just involve getting more. He obtains his broker license on Black Monday, and is forced to retreat to the suburbs to sell penny stocks. However, he creates a script that provides instant success for his business partners and soon, he is off with his partner in crime Donnie (Jonah Hill) creating his own company. As Jordan climbs the Wall Street ladder, he leaves his wife for a “duchess” (Margot Robbie) and draws interest from an FBI agent (Kyle Chandler) who believes Belfort is conducting illegal activity.
Wolf of Wall Street shows excess better than any film I have seen recently. Normality is seen as the enemy in the Wolf of Wall Street: the goal is to be in a perpetual high. There is a routine of drugs that you have to take to get yourself ready for a particular segment of the day, which you then have to counter with other mind altering substances. I cannot believe this movie is only R rated. There is so much nudity (including a male organ), drug use, and violence that NC-17 cannot be much farther away. This means that most scenes are ripe for some sort of hilarious comedy, the best of which involves the cartoon Popeye. One minor complaint (although it could be seen as the point) is that there is no equally quick free fall from grace, but the constant repetition of upping the ante gives Wolf of Wall Street some bite and indictment of a world revolving around personal mega-gratification.
Leo DiCaprio has never been more magnetic than he is here as Jordan Belfort. Whether he is motivating his team, pitching a potential client, or seducing a young woman, DiCaprio sells the heck out of his value and worth. He also gets a chance to play unabashedly shameless to great effect. His sex is over the top and only gratifying to himself (his wife consistently looks bored). The highlight (and Oscar worthy) scene involves DiCaprio under the influence of Quaaludes having to make his way from the front of a country club to his car to get home though he cannot walk. The body contortions alone are amazing and exceedingly humorous. To believe the Wolf of Wall Street, you have to believe in Jordan Belfort, and DiCaprio makes things easy.
The supporting cast is also fairly solid. Jonah Hill is the right mixture of creepy, enigmatic, but loyal as DiCaprio’s number 2. Hill is so unhinged that we’re ready for him to make the big mistake at any moment. Margot Robbie gets some surprising depth for what amounts to a trophy wife on paper. She has balls just as big as her husbands at some points. Matthew McConaughey gets three scenes, then drops the mike and walks off into the Wall St. sunset. Rob Reiner also gets to have some fun screaming at people for nonsense. Kyle Chandler gets to come off smart and a little high and mighty as the only character with a moral compass.
The Wolf of Wall St. is a reference to a hatchet job article about Jordan Belfort, that the man used to hire desperate losers who wanted to make a lot of money. The high seems to go on forever (3 hours of running time), using more desperate means year by year to obtain bigger and better things. Though not for the faint of heart, those who have been dying to see Martin Scorcese make a comedy will not be disappointed. The Wolf of Wall St. sells you its stock with great performance with outlandish set pieces. Just remember, Quaaludes have different time delays if you want to zone out during the movie.