The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street

Martin Scorsese

It is all about excess. There is no safeword – and even if there were, as Leonardo DiCaprio discovers in the candle wax scene, it wouldn’t work. Scorsese mixes up a lethal cocktail, of money, sex and drugs, to deliver an almighty adrenalin rush that is The Wolf of Wall Street. But this is no quick fix; for nearly three hours DiCaprio struts like a rock star, pumps up the volume and barely pauses for breath as he delivers his best performance to date as Jordan Belfort, who was the real Wolf of Wall Street until his stock broking firm fell foul of the FBI.

The story charts Belfort’s transformation from “pond scum” novice stockbroker to master of the universe. In this journey he recruits a team of former reprobates who are more familiar with the dynamics of selling drugs rather than stocks. The team, headed by the superb Jonah Hill, drives the film with their outlandish antics and macho-sleaze banter while they continually get high on their own supply. The relationship between DiCaprio and his acolytes resembles a highly accomplished bromance – is he playing Ray Liotta to Jonah Hill’s Joe Pesci in Scorsese’s mafia masterpiece, Goodfellas?

The degenerate behaviour rings more true than the viewer can imagine, it seems there is nothing that money can’t buy (except for an FBI agent). Even in the aftermath of the damaging Forbes article every young kid on the block, despite the questionable morality, wanted to be a stockbroker. And yes, greed has a habit of getting out of control. The mantra, encapsulated by DiCaprio’s brilliant motivational sales speech before the Steve Madden IPO, is where he pulls the rug under the moral story. To succeed in his world you need the combination of drive and low, not high, confidence.

Scorsese extracts great performances from everyone (and it’s a big everyone) from DiCaprio right down to his foul-mouthed assistant. Even the cameos are perfectly constructed. Matthew McConaughey, during the infamous chest-beating scene, actually upstages DiCaprio when he mesmerises a naive Jordan Belfort with his motto of sex and drugs as a prerequisite to succeed on Wall Street. And let’s not overlook Scorsese’s clever, ironic positioning of Jean Dujardin, of The Artist fame, as the Swiss banker spouting away in French and English.

The Wolf of Wall Street is shot for maximum overdrive. The audience is not invited to judge – nor do we care. Underneath that haze of cigarette smoke and cocaine lies a brilliant depiction of the go-go years of Wall Street. Scorsese has scored again with a film which, as one of the featured songs suggests, will remain One Step Beyond.