The Wolf of Wall Street

I’ve always liked the self-made man idea, and having the chance of knowing the story of someone of the corporate and business world, who I never heard about before, by the hand of Scorsese and DiCaprio, was more than enough for me to go to the movies with my girlfriend. The movie is based on the life of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker who started from nothing and worked his way up to success on Wall Street. Along with all the success comes the abuse of every type of drugs you can think of, debauchery, lies, bribes, corruption, and the subsequent downfall of the “Wolf”.

It’s a Scorsese movie alright. Remember how Ray Liotta used to narrate you the story on Goodfellas? Here we have DiCaprio addressing you directly on the screen in the good old-fashioned way that Scorsese had already presented to us. Not as brilliant, but still good. Scorsese went wild, oh yes he did. The way he pushes the limits on this movie is a bit over the top, I would say. I mean, you find yourself laughing at a dwarf tossing contest, or at having a “fuck-free zone” at the lunch hours in the office (can you imagine?), but sometimes, well sometimes it is just too much. For moments it is just like Scorsese is trying to glorify sex and drugs within the corporate world (and yes I do live in the corporate world), but then again, maybe that was one of the points in the movie. Maybe if some of those exaggerated moments had been skipped, the movie didn’t have to be almost 3-hours long.

For me DiCaprio doesn’t have much more to prove as one of the best actors of his generation, and as far as this movie is concerned, he does it all. Does he have better performances in other movies? Yes, maybe he does (The Aviator?), but making Belfort a likeable character (I rooted for him during the entire movie, even though he is depicted as the biggest scoundrel ever) was a hell of a job. Surprising, at least for me, was the big performance of Jonah Hill. I can’t help it, I will always think of him as that nerdy fat guy from Superbad. Still, he brings such soul to his character and he is so funny during the entire movie, that I have no problem in considering him a serious contender for the “actor in supporting role” Oscar.

It is the second movie nominated for best motion picture that I watch, and it is the second movie that I don’t feel like saying “It deserves to win”. It’s Scorsese, and it is really good, but it is far from his best.