Friday, December 27, 2013

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Director: Martin Scorsese. Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Cristin Milioti, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, Shea Whigham, Fran Lebowitz. 180 min. Rated R. Biography/Crime.

The true-story rise and fall ... of a New York stock broker. Scorsese and DiCaprio create one of their greatest collaborations ever, about the sickening but very palpable American (or general human) greed, and how it infiltrates the commonest people - overshadowing great movies like Oliver Stone's Wall Street. You think with the current viewer attention span of a 4-year-old, it would be tough to get through three hours movie time; but Scorsese delivers without a hitch, cruising through this fascinating/disgusting lifestyle, and not even a moment to look at your watch. Think of it as Goodfellas on Wall Street.

Mo says:
MoMagic!

2 comments:

  1. Agree that I liked it and never look at my watch a moment but I think the sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and profanity was too much ! not style of his previous work such an extreme Some scenes sound unreal (drug-intoxication and that pseudo- palsy or extra-pyramidal?! ) and exaggerated like those naked parties in work place that repeated over and over. BTW De Caprio did a great job and his chance for awards seems so high.The costume and production design was fantastic and the story of rise & fall of a genius like him is almost always touching and thought-provoking .

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    1. I was a little surprised by the amount of nudity also. Scorsese sometimes tells stories about quite vulgar material ("Taxi Dirver" and "The Last Temptation of Christ" are good examples), but he usually keeps the visuals to a minimum. Here, he left nothing to the imagination! But that was likely intentional, to show the lavish lifestyle of these "wolves". I also think the entire drug effect sequences were heavily dramatized, but it sure led to great movie-making: the DiCaprio paralysis sequence is one of the best in the movie.

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