THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Fuelled by adrenaline, testosterone and narcotics, Martin Scorseses riotous account of the Lifestyles of the Morally Bankrupt and Infamous is every bit as obscene and excessive as its subject matter demands.
Based on a lurid true story and bolstered by Scorseses masterful direction, Terence Winters profane script, and at least a dozen perfectly calibrated performances, Wolf tells of the Goodfellas-like rise and fall of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio). First glimpsed hoovering cocaine off a prostitutes posterior and tossing little people around his office (the tip of the debauched iceberg), the stockbroker proceeds to regale us with precisely how he pulled himself from the wreckage of the Black Monday market crash of 1987, started hocking penny stocks and built himself into a multi-millionaire by indulging in highly illegal practices.
In his fifth collaboration with Scorsese, DiCaprio is compellingly brazen and utterly captivating in every frame. Initially, hes outwardly impressionable but the glint in his eyes reveal a lupine hunger. Hes practically begging to be corrupted. And just as Belfort surrenders to unhinged hedonism, revelling in the unseemly gaucheness readily associated with new money, DiCaprio throws himself into a physically demanding role that routinely calls on him to be a puppet whose vices are pulling the strings. A skirmish between Belfort and his lieutenant (an unsettlingly odd Jonah Hill) while both are whacked out on Quaaludes ranks as one of the most gonzo sequences committed to film in 2013.
Scorseses Wolf makes no apologies for its bad behaviour, brilliantly conveying the illicit exhilaration derived from living large off of ill-gotten gains before allowing reality to unceremoniously crash the party. Much like the sordid life that inspired it, its one hell of a ride. Curtis Woloschuk
