Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a stockbroker who made a fortune selling worthless penny stocks and lived the high life all through the ‘90s, until being busted by the FBI and sent to jail.
Based on his autobiographical book of the same name, The Wolf of Wall Street is a tale of greed, corruption, drugs, sex, power and crime.
We say, “It’s hilarious and horrifying.”
HOWE: In the last week we have seen two movies filmed in a very similar style: American Hustle and now The Wolf of Wall Street. For the life of me I can’t decide which is the better of the two. From the opening scene of Belfort (DiCaprio) driving in his Lamborghini Countach to him giving his speech at the end, it had me hooked. Three hours just flew past.
TAYLOR: Last week we reviewed American Hustle, which many people thought reminded them of a Scorsese movie. The Wolf of Wall Street is a Scorsese film. I enjoyed the film. It is a story of excess and becomes a relentless rocket ride of debauchery. It is the most restricted movie I’ve seen in a long time, with blatant, blunt speech and scenes. These characters, led by Belfort, are drug-crazed sex maniacs that don’t take a break for work. In fact, their lifestyles become a requirement for employment. As such, the story flip flops between being funny and sad, as Belfort acts out in drug-crazed stupors and slowly degenerates into the normal, albeit well dressed, addict with the usual problems affecting his health, work and life.
HOWE: Even though DiCaprio is the main lead role in this, I thought it was Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), who to me anyway, stole all the scenes he was in. With his fake, super-white teeth, horn- rimmed glasses and jumper over the shoulders he seemed to be an infectious person you would want to have around you. It was at his scenes that I found myself laughing the hardest.
TAYLOR: DiCaprio is a fine actor, not the type of actor that disappears into roles, like Christian Bale or Gary Oldman, but more than just a movie star, to be sure. Despite fine performances all around, The Wolf of Wall Street, as a whole, is not breaking any new ground. In fact, it’s actually kind of a lazy movie. Not only does Belfort narrate the entire film, he addresses the audience directly and then, in the interest of “moving the story along,” he starts skipping details, sardonically. So in actuality, what we have here is a film, taken verbatim from the novel, explained to us like we are children, where every glorious and horrible detail are enacted. It could have very easily been just as effective with 40 minutes less movie. However, the story is so interesting and titillating that the filmmaking being unimaginative, or uninventive doesn’t render The Wolf of Wall Street into an unwatchable movie, but I do have to dock points because frankly, I expect more from Mr. Scorsese.
HOWE: Like I said earlier, I couldn’t decide which is the better of the two films. So if you have the time to watch both, I would highly recommend seeing both of them. They are well worth it.
— Howe gives The Wolf of Wall Street 4.5 lemons out of 5.
—Taylor gives it 3.5 sex scenes out of every 5.
The film is currently showing at the Galaxy Cinemas in Vernon.
— Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are film reviewers based in Vernon, B.C.
