Movie review - The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) / biography, comedy, drama, crime

Directed by Martin Scorsese
Screenplay by Terence Winter
Based on The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort
Produced by Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Riza Aziz, Joey McFarland, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Cristin Milioti, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, Katarina Čas, Shea Whigham, Christine Ebersole
Trailer: click.

Roaring thrill that will sweep you off your feet!

PLOT
Black comedy based on Jordan Belfort's memoir. It follows Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), a New York stockbroker who runs a firm that engages in securities fraud and corruption on Wall Street in the 1990s. He gets involved in drugs, money and even more drugs, marries, divorces, does drugs, marries again, finds a real friend, do even more party and drugs. But a profligate lifestyle and terrible life choices demand serious consequences.

REVIEW
You get engaged right away and it lasts the entire duration. The pace of the film is just unbelievable. You don't have time to properly breathe! It's tense, exciting, funny, interesting at all times and then all of a sudden it's over. When three hours seem like a half an hour. Well, that's brilliant filmmaking! The film is not only hilarious but uncovers a downward spiral of corruption with dramatic elements. Moral questions are presented while the film showcases one messed-up man. Of course the movie wouldn't be the same without Leo! Jaw dropping excellent perfromance (I'm not going to harbour my Oscars feelings again but you can read my toughts here)! The whole supporting cast is great as well. The script, music, settings, everything works! 2013 most enjoyable film! 5-/5

Fun facts about The Wolf of Wall Street:
- The film holds the record for the most uses of the word "fuck" in a mainstream non-documentary film.

- This is the fifth movie collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese. The actor-director duo have previously worked together in Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed and Shutter Island.

- There is a chest-beating hum mantra scene with Matthew McConaughey in the film. On a appearance on The Graham Norton Show he explained (click) that was part of his acting warm-up: "That's something I'll do before scenes to relax myself, get my voice to drop. I've been doing it for a while, but it's just something I do." Leonardo spotted Matthew doing that off-camera and asked Scorsese if they could put it into the movie. They did and it turned out amazing!

- The actors snorted vitamin B tablets in the scenes that show the bankers doing cocaine.

- How did the actors know how to act when they had too many quaaludes? Well, they had expert on set. Scorsese explained it on Conan: click.

- Leonardo has said the scene where Jonah Hill sticks ham to his face took 70 takes. On the Ellen Show he told (click): "They couldn't get this ham to stick on my face so they had to put K-Y Jelly, and there's literally a guy there behind this giant window with a plastic spoon just flicking ham on my face."

- Leonadro eating sushi was real. Not a big deal if he would eat only one yellowtail. Scorsese warned him not finish each take by actually gobbling the last bit of yellowtail, but the actor insisted. Somewhere around take 8 or 9 of the three-to-four-hour shoot, it got bad (click).