The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Review

“Let the scalping begin!”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Success is a curse. You don’t believe me? Look at The Wolf of Wall Street.


PLOT


Based on Terrence Winter’s titular novel, the 2013 film follows the life of real life stockbroker Jordan Belfort. In 1987, he started out working for LF Rothschild, taken under the wing by Mark Hanna to make the only goal in making money for himself, thus enticing him to a drug fueled culture. Following being let go on Black Monday, he starts working at a broker room beverage firm, Investor’s Center, that specializes in pink slip penny stocks and makes a fortune thanks to his aggressive pitching style and high commissions. Overtime, he befriends his neighbor Donnie Azoff to start their own brokerage company, Stratton Oakmont. Alongside drug pusher Brad Bonick, Jordan recruits a handful of childhood friends to be part of the company. Their names include: Chester Ming (Kenneth Choi), Robbie Feinberg (Brian Sacca), Alden Kupferburg (Henry Zebrowski), Nicky Kostoff (PJ Byrne) & Toby Welch (Ethan Suplee). He teaches them his hard sell techniques that contribute to a pump & dump scheme that allows them to sell stocks at higher prices. However, the prices plummet after when the perpetrators sell overvalued securities and those who buy the inflated price get less than what paid for. As Stratton Oakmont gets bigger, so does Jordan’s addiction to prostitution and drugs. Around the time he dumps his first wife Teresa for a model named Naomi Lapaglia, the SEC & FBI start investigating him. When he secures the IPO of Steve Madden Ltd. that illegally earns him $22 million in 3 hours, this only enhances their attention to the point where he unsuccessfully fails to bribe Agent Patrick Denham. This leads to him prompting a safe place for the money, opening a Swiss bank account with banker Jean-Jacques Saurel, under the name of Naomi’s aunt Emma (Joanna Lumley). He picks her because she’s a British citizen outside immediate reach of American authorities. Once he convinces her to do so, he uses Brad’s wife Chantelle (Katarina Čas) to smuggle the cash into Switzerland. Later, Donnie & Brad have an argument during a money exchange that causes the latter to get caught and the former escapes without telling anyone what happened. He instead treats Jordan to Lemmon 714 quaaludes who gets a call from his private investigator Bo Dietl that they need to talk on a pay phone because his calls are being wiretapped. Just as he explains what happened to Brad, the drugs kick in for both Belfort & Azoff. The former drives home recklessly in order to confront his friend, only save his life from choking to some meat. When he gets confronted by the police for his reckless driving, Belfort’s dad Max advises to step down from Stratton Oakmont and lie low in order to negotiate a deal that’ll keep him out of prison. Instead, he chooses to stay in the midst of a farewell speech and makes amends with Brad after his arrest, respectfully parting ways with him before passing of a heart attack. In ‘96, Jordan & Donnie have a trip in Italy with their wives but the latter must rush to Switzerland in order to forge Aunt Emma’s signature, after she too passes away of a heart attack. This causes his yacht to crash and when being rescued, he tries sobering up knowing his plane to Geneva destroyed as well. When Saurel & Koskoff get arrested for an unrelated crime in ‘98, the former informs the FBI about Belfort in exchange for a plea bargain. Jordan does agree to gather evidence in exchange for leniency and despite getting caught for warning Donnie, he gets a 36 month minimum security release and would be released after 22. Before his sentence began, Naomi would divorce him and demand full custody of their two children. He aggressively responded by relapsing and tried driving away with his daughter before crashing his car in the driveway. After his release, he would make a living by hosting seminars on sales techniques. The film ends with Belfort using the same test he used with his past partners on how to simply sell a fan.


THOUGHTS


As I got into Martin Scorsese as a teenager, this is one of the films that felt like events to me because it impressed me to see a veteran filmmaker continue to make captivating movies as he was getting older. If this one proved anything, age shouldn’t stop you doing what you love as long as the passion remains the way it began. Arguably, this was the 2010s equivalent of Goodfellas because it was an adrenaline rush showing the highs and lows participating in the life of crime. It of course starts out fun because you feel invincible when you do what feels impossible especially when you find loopholes for success that may or may not be difficult. That said rush is pulled off thanks to the combo of Thelma Schoonmaker’s sharp editing and Rodrigo Porto’s loud cinematography, which in turn make an emphasis that the fun one can find being successful, Wall Street or not, is only a fantasy. You know it can’t be taken serious when there’s dwarfs thrown across the office or a gay butler trying to play victim for robbing his boss. In reality, the whole three hour runtime remains so (re)watchable to this day because it’s intelligent in still saying there are consequences to unchecked greed and if you keep getting carried away with integrity now, you’re not maintain the materialism you work so hard for. This lesson is brought to perfection by one of the best performances anyone will ever witness. Although Leonardo DiCaprio would go on to get his first Oscar for The Revenant a few years later, the role of Jordan Belfort is his best performance to date because he smoothly becomes him as if he was born for it. He starts out as a charming guy who just wants the struggle to stop, but that only led the way to severe hedonism he couldn’t control at the times he needed to, especially when surrounding himself with people that were arguably greedier. Matthew McConaughey definitely got the ideas going as Matt Hanna because he’s able to larger than life 24/7, working & partying endlessly without pumping the brakes which inspired Belfort to follow suit rather than take a step back to find a better direction. I mean he definitely got hooked when seeing him snort cocaine in public and have an improvised chest beating hum before lunch. It was obvious he was enamored with how he lived to where he didn’t want to wait any longer for success to come his way. And off of that, he sure felt invincible when driving a yacht into a storm, driving a car or flying a helicopter while high. The consequence would be being rid of whatever morals he had left no matter how hard he thought he was on the right track. The first example would be how his drug addiction would in turn make him an unfaithful husband two times over. In character standards, the first true victim had to be Teresa because whenever we saw her, Cristin Milioti was so morally upright in her portrayal that you’re surprised she made it so far with him, thus rightfully cutting ties sooner rather than later. Enter Margot Robbie who takes command as Naomi because her beauty was a superweapon, which she sold very well to be Jordan’s trophy wife. Undoubtedly, she was manipulative on her end because she chose to jump ship when he had nothing rather than be emotional support he expected from Teresa. That is where shit truly hit the fan because it came to show he never had control in his luxurious life no matter how hard he thought so, thus going ballistic on her before going to jail. Besides his first love, it’s a given to say the only other person that cared for the guy was his dad. Despite easily losing temper to the point where he’s sarcastically called Mad Max by peers, Rob Reiner made it clear  he comes from the right place when it comes to thinking ahead. Sadly, Jordan was more focused on pleasing the people he mistook for friends. Jon Bernthal sure made Brad interesting as someone who was still fiery yet still loyal in the midst of the chaos he took part of, it was really Donnie that was the bigger standout when it came to being a confidant to Belfort. Jonah Hill makes Azoff his own all timer performance because he shared the mindset of starting out slow but getting too much into the madness he couldn’t help himself with. I mean you know you’re too comfortable when you’re swallowing a goldfish or publicly masturbating when in public, neither of which could you condone. Because of how slimy Jean Dujardin ended up proving as Saurel, you can’t help asking why would Belfort take the risk in protecting Azoff. It was obvious he couldn’t help it because he assumed he’d share the same loyalty as Brad but he was sure proven it can only be taken to a point for some, hence the note being found whether or not Azoff really gave it to the FBI. Last but not least, Kyle Chandler left a good impression on me as Denham because although he is motivated/determined to stop criminals, he still has enough envy towards that he wishes what he had. He wants to think he’ll have a similar glory in arresting him, but the disappointment he had in not having any similar glory and still had to ride a subway like any average joe proves there’s not always a prestige to reach whichever working class you’re part of. Although both sides of the law never exactly got or kept what they wanted, you can only assume they’ll find content now that their rivalry is over. While I’m not sure if Denham ever got there, Belfort getting to pass on advice for the better comes to imply that at least he did. Having said that, The Wolf of Wall Street is the best thing to come from 2013 for having the right balance of realism and fantasy, earning its Best Picture nominee. If you enjoy crime dramas that nail that pacing, see this now.