Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - Review
Originally published August 2015Leonardo Di Caprio is certainly an actor who has managed to grab hold of my attention and improve my opinion of him over the past few years. Back during his "heart-throb" days from Titanic and Man in the Iron Mask, I didn't see much there in terms of his acting abilities. After watching The Departed, Shutter Island, and Inception, Leo has proven to me that he can act and that he has the charisma to hold a film up with his abilities. My opinion is not important to him, however, as I am not the one who hands out the golden idol. Time to appease The Academy with another Martin Scorsese film and finally win the Oscar!
Or not.
Mean-spirited jokes aside, The Wolf of Wall Street has been sitting on my Netflix queue for quite a while now and I finally got around to watching it recently. Having viewed all 3 hours worth of it, I can't at all recommend the film. It's not a bad film, but I can't say that it's good either. It gets a "pass" from me, which means it doesn't fail, but I'd rather pass on seeing it again.
Before I get into more details, here's the breakdown.
Pros
Leo shines in his ability to act and show the variety of emotions for his character, Jordan Belfort, in a convincing manner, as well as imitate the experience of being heavily intoxicated from a ton of different types of drugs. I also get the distinct feeling he's channeling Al Pachino for this role
Scorsese's direction is still on point in several scenes with how he was able to have palpable subtle tension underneath some of the dialogue
One particular scene is when Jordan invites FBI agents onto his yacht to try and bribe them
There are a few laugh-out-loud moments, usually involving bad drug trips
Cons
Why is this movie 3 hours long? It has no excuse for being this long
Extreme objectification of women that is never acknowledged
Negligence to do something more meaningful with the material, especially if they have the audacity to stretch out a plot about a stockbroker who cheats the system and gets rich for 3 hours
Lack of a reason for me to care about Jordan Belfort's success and failures; they give one small moment in the very beginning to show that he was once a decent guy and expect that to carry my empathy for the rest of the 3-hour run-time
Pointless flash forward, in the beginning, ruins first impressions of character; if you're going to convince me this was once a good guy, don't start your movie with him tossing a little person at a bulls-eye for the hell of it
Why is the movie so long?
Movie doesn't know how serious it wants to be or if I should care
Half of the movie is softcore porn with how much female nudity, imagery, and humping is involved
Leo needs to do new movies without Scorsese or something where he isn't from the East Coast anymore; he needs a new fake accent.
For real, why is this movie so damn long?
Additional Thoughts
I've re-written this section multiple times because I have a lot of gripes with this movie that end up leading me down the road of rants, which defeats the whole purpose of calling this a "quick" review.
Purpose happens to be the real problem with Wolf. Simply put, there's no real point to this movie. It's way too long for a movie about a character who isn't fun or interesting, which is surprising considering this is a Scorsese film, and usually, he is pretty good at making me care about despicable characters. This movie is the story of an individual that is told in the way the individual would want to tell it. Too bad I don't like the story.
I'd rather watch another long Scorsese movie with a dozen assholes and murderers whom I care about because they're actually interesting and their stories are intriguing and there's actual tension in their lives as a result, like The Departed or Goodfellas. Jordan Belfort is just a vapid, vain individual who seems to think that the amount of respect and attention he deserved was directly tied to how many millions he had and how many women he banged. I'd rather listen to mobsters talk about their experiences for 3 hours than have to spend the same amount of time with a real person who behaves this way.
Worth Seeing?
Without the childish comedy and immature nature of the film, Wolf of Wall Street ends up being formulaic and ultimately mimics better movies, like Scarface, that were actually willing to address some issues during their rags to riches stories, or at least make me empathize with the villainous protagonists because their characters had legitimate human qualities or were so far beyond insane that I was intrigued by them. Jordan Belfort is just a rich buffoon who spent his ambition in the first 90 minutes and then expected me to stick around for the remaining 90 minutes while he enjoyed his success. Even his long-awaited and deserved downfall came abruptly and was over before I knew it.
With so many other movies that manage to tackle similar subjects, and tell more interesting stories in a better way, what is the point of watching Wolf of Wall Street? Maybe I missed the point. Maybe it's supposed to be a satirical take on Wall Street that vividly shows just how terribly greedy people are, how they take advantage of others, and how entitled the culture is. However, I can't help but think that there could have been a better way of showing this. So, I think the only reason to watch it is because it's a vehicle for Leo's acting career. Too bad it didn't win him the Oscar.