The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Title: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler, Jon Favreau  

                 

I went into The Wolf of Wall Street knowing very little about it; the only thing that pulled me in was knowing that DiCaprio and Scorsese were working together again, something they’ve been doing since they collaborated on Gangs of New York (2002). The Wolf of Wall Street marks their fifth collaboration! When these two get together they don’t disappoint. I mean, were talking about one of the greatest directors of our time, the guy who gave us Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995), to name just a few of the many memorable films that Scorsese is responsible for. There’s a reason why he is a living legend in the world of cinema, he is a director that lives and breathes films. He’s the kind of director that makes films because it’s his art; it’s what he was born to do, it’s what he loves, rarely do directors understand the cinematic language and it’s many uses the way Scorsese does and in The Wolf of Wall Street he puts all the knowledge he’s accumulated through the years to good use, the results are nothing short of one of Scorsese’s most entertaining films in years.

The film is based on Jordan Belfort’s book of the same name. It tells the story of how Belfort became a stock broker extraordinaire by starting his own company. Belfort was a guy who started at the very bottom of the corporate ladder by working as a stockbroker on Wall Street;  as Belfort learned the tricks of the trade, he slowly but surely made his dreams a reality: he finally got what he always wanted, his own firm! It isn’t long before Belfort and his team make so much moolah, that they don’t know what the hell to do with it! They soon discover many mind expanding ways to spend their millions: lots of parties, lot’s of drugs and lot’s of sex! Will money and power corrupt these guys? Or will they learn to do things the right way; avoiding ugly confrontations with the I.R.S. or the F.B.I? Can they get away with it?

The Wolf of Wall Street was released on Christmas Day as a beautiful Christmas present from Martin Scorsese to movie goers everywhere; actually I’m being sarcastic; the movie has nothing to do with Christmas, or anything nice, in fact, it shows one of the ugliest sides of human nature: GREED. The Wolf of Wall Street’s release coincided with two other films dealing with similar subject matter: David O Russell’s American Hustle (2013) and Ridley Scott’s The Counselor (2013); these are all films depicting greedy people going the lengths to make as much money as they can, as quickly as they can, so they can live the quintessential ‘American Dream’; which in all three movies quickly degenerates into an American Nightmare. You watch these three films and you won’t see good wholesome people playing by the rules. Nope, in all three you’ll see a lot of people making desperate moves to get rich quick; which is never a good idea. There’s been some bad press for The Wolf of Wall Street saying things like it glorifies this sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle, but in reality, The Wolf of Wall Street is a morality tale, in the end, the one to break the law gets caught. Greed and excess in these films are portrayed as sins. By way of an example, the tagline for The Counselor is “Sin is a Choice”, hell one of the many promotional posters for The Wolf of Wall Street shows Leonardo DiCaprio posing for a mug shot, so no, I don’t agree with those that say this movie glorifies greed, in fact, on this film, greed gets you a warm bed in jail.

But then again, you can’t really blame a film for being truthful either; I mean, the film isn’t about glorifying greed or excess, it simply shows things the way they happened, that’s it and that’s all. If it all appears to be one big party, than that’s probably because that’s the way it happened. In the interest of authenticity, Belfort himself was onset as a consultant in order to make things as truthful as possible, which adds a level of credibility to the film. There’s a difference between glorifying a thing and being truthful people! But you wanna know what’s really weird about the film? It’s how these guys are all doing these awful things, yet it all comes off as incredibly funny. The real deal with The Wolf of Wall Street is that it may not look like a comedy, but in reality, the film is hilarious! I saw it with a packed audience, and they were cracking up every five minutes. Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for a Golden Globe for this film in the “Best Actor in a Comedy” category, so that tells you a whole lot about the general aura of the film. Two elements dominate this film: comedy and schock value. I mean, these guys do some pretty horrible things on this movie, yet it’s all hilarious at the same time? DiCaprio plays Belfort with a snicker in his face the whole time, like he’s got it all covered and don’t you worry about a thing. Speaking of Dicaprio, the talented actor has been ignored by the Academy Awards for way too long, what gives? He keeps making excellent film after excellent film and they just keep on ignoring the guy. I was almost sure he’d win an Oscar for Django Unchained (2012), but no. Again he was denied! Hopefully the Academy will give him the recognition he deserves.

Oscar aspirations aside, I gotta remind you guys that this movie is crass, I mean, it doesn’t care one bit about being politically correct and I liked it! I mean, I’m getting pretty freaking tired with all these movies playing it safe and trying to be all polite and nice; leave it to Martin Scorsese, a cinematic child of the 70’s, to give us a movie with some big brass balls! This one is a hard R all the way! There’s a lot of shock value to this movie! When going to see this movie you have to ask yourself one question: are you ready to see Leonardo DiCaprio snorting cocaine out of some girls’ asshole? Well you better be, because that happens in the films first ten minutes, just to make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into! Final words on The Wolf of Wall Street is that it’s a jolt of electricity down your spine; the last time I remember getting that from a movie was with Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994), so take that for what it’s worth. This is one of those epic movies that takes you down the life of a character from start to finish; from when they we’re nobodies, to when they become stock broking rock stars; you’ll go down the road with these guys as they get rich, party like animals, get corrupted and finally pay for all their excesses. Sure they all end up in jail doing time, but boy, what a ride eh?! Here I was thinking that Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity (2013) was going to end up being my favorite film of 2013; guess what, things change, so The Wolf of Wall Street is now my official choice for best film of 2013! Go see it!

Rating:  5 out of 5 

New York, New York (1977)

Title: New York, New York (1977)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Robert De Niro, Liza Minelli

Review:

Considering the legendary status of filmmaker Martin Scorsese, it is extremely difficult for me to fathom that any of his films have tanked at the box office, i.e. made no money, i.e. flopped. To me, each Scorsese film is like a gift from the film gods. But low and behold, even an epic love story like New York, New York can fail. I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that New York, New York was made early in Scorsese’s career and he still wasn’t a house hold name yet. Apparently back then, even though he’d already made Taxi Driver (1976) and Mean Streets (1973), Scorsese still had a ways to go before becoming the Scorsese we know today, before reaching legendary status. Maybe New York, New York failed at the box office because audiences expected something grittier from Scorsese? Or maybe it was the 155 minutes of running time that scared audiences away? Or maybe it was the fact that it was a musical? Maybe it failed because it was a bleak out look on love? Whatever the case, this film failed to capture audiences’ attention back in 1977. It failed to make its money back upon its original release, so much so that it threw director Martin Scorsese in a downward spiral of depression and drug abuse.

Scorcese checks out the dailies with Minelli

It’s too bad audiences didn’t flock to check this one out in theaters, it is such an epic love story! The films catch phrase is “A love story is like a song, it’s beautiful while it lasts” and in my book, it this catch phrase that captures what New York, New York is really all about. New York, New York is a film that covers all the different phases that one goes through when falling in love. The first meeting, the excitement of the first kiss, the passion that follows, glimpses of true love. But there’s also that bitter sweet time when two people fall out of love, when two lives aren’t clicking anymore; when peoples lives start heading in different directions. But oh, the joy of those first few moments when it works! Maybe this is what scared audiences away from discovering this film, how it isn’t your typical love story.

New York, New York is a film that was made in a very old school sort of way. Some of you might know that Scorsese is not only a filmmaker, he is also a true film lover and with New York, New York he was paying homage to all those Hollywood musicals he grew up loving, those old Hollywood films with fake looking sets and actors who over acted. This is the reason why some of the backgrounds in New York, New York look fake; the film was emulating the old Hollywood productions and it was doing it on purpose. Scorsese was trying to capture that certain look and feel, that certain artificiality of old Hollywood films. At the same time, New York, New York was a film that was very truthful about love. Not all love stories have a happy endings, not all films end with the couple kissing, fade to black. This being Scorsese, he offers us a film that pays homage to his favorite films, while at the same time infusing it with a bit of his own dark side, so the film is bitter sweet that way.  

It’s no secret that Scorsese loves The Red Shoes (1948) and considers it to be one of his favorite films ever, which is why it didn’t surprise me to see him tackling some of the same themes that The Red Shoes addressed. New York, New York is a film that explores that dichotomy between the dedicated and sacrificed life of an artist vs. the all too familiar path of love, marriage and a family. Same as ballerina Victoria Page in The Red Shoes, Jimmy Doyle and Francine Evans are torn between becoming parents or living the life of an artist. Jimmy is a saxophone player and Francine is a singer, both are looking for a way to make it. For a while, the film explores the competition that derives between the two. Who is better? Who is bigger? Who’s in charge? Ultimately, the love between the two is stronger, but what happens when a baby comes along? Will they sacrifice it all to become parents? Are they willing to sacrifice what defines them as human beings? These are the themes explored in this fantastic film.

The colors in this film are amazing, I devoured the way the film looks. Scorsese never just makes a film, with Scorsese it’s always something special and you can tell it’s obviously a Scorsese movie because of those special shots, the way he swoops that camera, the way he sets up the lighting, the colors, this film was just eye candy for me. There are these scenes that take place inside of a Jazz Club, just colorful, colorful visuals. And some scenes just scream “classic”, like the scene with which the film opens up with; this grand party right smack in the middle of a ballroom somewhere in the middle of New York City, just as every American was celebrating their victory over the Japanese. The party atmosphere is really absorbed here. These are scenes with hundreds of extras, confetti flying everywhere, people dancing, a ballroom full of life, a scene ripped right out of a Fellini film. It actually brought to mind a similar scene in Fellini’s I Vitelloni (1953). Same as in Fellini’s film, these scenes in New York, New York are all about a huge party going on with a big band playing as everyone is going on about their respective debaucheries. And the debauchery continued even behind the scenes, where Scorsese was having an affair with Minelli. It was not a peaceful shoot that’s for sure, there’s nightmare stories about the making of this film, and yet, the results where amazing in my book.

Finally, De Niro and Liza Minelli are magic together. With their characters you can feel a relationship developing in a rather rocky fashion. De Niro’s Jimmy Boyle is that ultimate macho dude from the 50’s, you know, the kind that loves his wife but will have no trouble smacking her around in order to knock some sense into her; you get the feeling he’s the kind of guy who’s about to blow up any second. Minelli is beautiful, extremely talented and always questioning, always defying Jimmy’s authority. Sadly, though they love each other intensely, their lives begin to drift apart. You feel the love, but you feel fate tearing them away from each other. It’s a sad tale at the end of the day, but all the more realistic because of it. And even though one of the final musical numbers in the film is called “Happy Endings” we soon discover that, same as life itself, this just isn’t so. A word about the music in this film: the song “Theme from New York, New York” composed by John Kender went on to become one of the most famous songs ever. Liza Minelli sings it on the film, and later Frank Sinatra did a take on it as well. The song went on to become world famous. Who doesn’t know the lyrics to it? “I want to be a part of it! New York, New York!” It’s not very often that a song becomes so closely associated with a place itself, when people think of New York City; chances are this song will pop into their heads. The film itself captures the magic of the city, glamorizing as is to be expected from Scorsese, a director enamored with The Big Apple. So for all these reasons stated above my friends, it feels to me that New York, New York is a true classic of American cinema, the kind of film you want to watch before you die.

Rating: 5 out of 5