'The Wolf of Wall Street' directed by Martin Scorsese — Page 2

Unneccesarily long. WAY too long. There was a point in the film where it seemed like it was heading to an end....so I glance at my watch, and the film was not even HALF way done yet. Obsurd. They could have easily made trims and edits to erase 60+ minutes of the film.

Matthew McConaughey stole the film in the 5 minutes that he was in it. Leo and Hill were both excellent and will be competition for Oscar nods.

Yes, the quaalude sequence was the best part of the film.

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An Open Letter To The Makers of THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

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I recommend the movie "Margin Call," with Zach Quinto, among others. The last thing the selfish douchebags in this country need is another "Greed is good" protagonist.

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Just got back. It's the best DiCaprio-Scorsese collaboration I have seen, albeit compared to DeNiro-Scorsese, that is not a high bar to pass. It's my favorite of the year after Frances Ha. **shrugs**

I am not necessarily sure what scenes could be cut. Shortened, perhaps, but the structure and beats of the entire film are these considerably drawn out scenes.

The way Scorsese films the office scenes of these close-ups of dozens of minion employees in frame shows, to me, people who are falling for Belfort's program. And in the end, when we see what happens to those people, we realize that in the final scene where we get a repeat of an earlier scene involving a pen re-contextualized, we realize that this is not a redemption moment but a recalibration. I think Scorsese is, in fact, rather contemptuous of how the justice system worked in this case. He so wants this to go in a Good Friday ending like his earlier works but Belfort gets away with it. He is so conscious of how BS and unreliable Belfort's memoirs serve for narrating the film and you do not buy that he is reformed despite serving time.

If people fear the image of Belfort being this Gordon Gekko/Tony Montana type, not only does Belfort's actual existence really undercut some aspiring image for any bro-y types interested but the characters are so unappealing. The 90s clothing is garish, the drug-use is shown as destructive and infantile for the characters, and the introduction of the materialistic aspects of the movie have an undercurrent of a larger cultural problem for being an aspiration.

I'd just suggest watching the film first. People might find it over-long and exhausting by the end but I actually think it's editing and acted in a way where it does not feel like its run-time at all.

If for nothing else, ace cameos by McConaughey, Spike Jonze, Joanna Lumley, Christine Ebersole as Belfort's mother, Fran Lebowitz (!!!!!!!!!) and Jean Dujardin make it worthing watching.

Updated On: 12/28/13 at 04:58 PM

Margot Robbie better become a star. I want that whole time I watched Pan Am to mean something.

I seemingly like Jonah Hill in his work, I've said it before he has made a lot of good choices, and it was not until the second-half I really saw something different. I don't get the Pesci comparisons, however. This is Sandra Bernhard in The King of Comedy level of commitment. Even as a comic performance this was an unexpected revelation. That lemmons scene with him and Leo fighting is incredible work by the two of them.

Leo gives one of his best performances ever. It makes me wonder why he has avoided comedy. Just the physical comedy of what he puts his body through in scenes that take their time (I was not expecting the length of that dominatrix scene at all) is something I was not expecting. It's like a hybrid of James Cagney and Jerry Lewis.

I wouldn't really call the film slick and as somebody who read the script, this movie rides on improv all the way. It's more Thelma Schoonmaker and Marty than Terrence Winter, and the moments it sticks to script with a pretty dumb anachronistic '1%' mention, I feel like it was a great call for Scorsese to stick to prefer improv. The script is exhausting and made me fear what would be on-screen until I heard about the improv and sure enough the indulgences of what the script describes are mere asides. Personally the music supervising work of Robbie Robertson and Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography figure more to the film than the original script.

Updated On: 12/28/13 at 08:11 PM

'I recommend the movie "Margin Call," with Zach Quinto, among others. The last thing the selfish douchebags in this country need is another "Greed is good" protagonist.'

God i loved that film

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Leo has released a new statement where he addresses the criticism the film has received.

Quote:

“I hope people understand we’re not condoning this behavior, that we’re indicting it. The book was a cautionary tale, and if you sit through the film, you’ll realize what we’re saying about these people and this world, because it’s an intoxicating one.”

The actor also praised director Martin Scorsese in the interview for making films that DiCaprio says are both “vital and talked about, and have an element of controversy about them.”

DiCaprio said The Wolf of Wall Street and The Aviator are the two films he’s been most passionate about making.

“People — no matter what their attitude is after seeing the film — should understand this is a film that’s outside the box and is very difficult to get done in this day and age; it almost never happens,” DiCaprio told Variety. “Thank god there are people who have taste for experimental filmmaking at this level and who really want to endorse this type of film because if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t see any types of films like this.”


Leonardo DiCaprio defends 'Wolf of Wall Street': 'We're not condoning this behavior, we're indicting it'

I only recently saw Casino and frankly its bells and whistles echoed one too many previous, better Scorsese films. This genuinely felt like Scorsese and DiCaprio showing much more in their repertoire. I cannot really say what could've been cut altogether but we should never confuse edits for an over-long run-time. Thelma Schoonmaker is one of the best editors for a reason. I don't see excess as much as I see vision. To me this movie had much more to say than Casino or really his other movies post-The Age of Innocence, not that they the movies in-between were not good.

The movie's aim high went against every Scorsese-DiCaprio film I've seen. The movie being this polarizing and not a blazing box office success as it was thought to be should be a badge of honor for them. This feels more like a film Scorsese would've made with DeNiro than anything else.

Good points Mr. Midwest. IMHO, the whole butler scenario is another example of the film's "excess." It wasn't needed in any way, shape or form to tell the story. But since Scorcese likes his violent "beating" scenes he put this one in because he could.

Saw this over the weekend and was very very impressed indeed. Easily Scorsese's best work in a long time, and his best collaboration with DiCaprio. The film is a savage satirical demolition of the love of money and the lack of basic human decency (and the love of the lack of basic human decency, by the way). Scorsese rubs our fascination with the acquisition of wealth in our collective faces, and it is not a pretty picture.

I'm seeing a lot of hand-wringing about whether or not the film endorses the character's behavior, and I have to say that I just can't understand how in God's name anyone can find anything like an endorsement of these people as presented in the film. Part of the experience, I think, is in watching Scorsese push push push these people into ever more dreadful situations, just so they can always do just exactly the most revolting thing. And he never lets them off the hook, we're always reminded of how illegal (at the very least) Belfort's activities are in no uncertain terms.

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In re: the butler scene, and being the butt of the joke.

Part of the point of the film is that we are ALL the butt of the joke -- we're all being beaten, figuratively and literally, by the likes of Jordan Belfort and his band of vermin. They are equal opportunity exploiters and offenders. The dreadful scenes showing their contempt for their customes, and that horrifying scene of the board room discussion of the ins and outs of dwarf tossing are just part of a vast tapestry of disgusting moments.

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Updated On: 1/13/14 at 10:35 AM

The Christmas thing is dumb. Django Unchained and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (of which promoted itself as 'The Feel BAD film of the Christmas season') were Christmas releases. There is always at least one major studio film that is mainly for adult audiences who prefer some counter-programming for the holiday season.

I just don't see how the drug overdoses, the assaults, that head-shaving scene, and the pen's return at the very end is not showing major warts and character flaws of the people on-screen. Some of it's funny, that quaaludes scene and the twist as to how and why Jordan was able to get out of it was pretty hilarious, but none of those zoo moments at the office really feel like, 'This is the right thing to do.' It feels like a pied piper with an angry mob who make a really toxic atmosphere for anybody different than how they behave. I keep going back to the chest-bump close-ups of the employees and have to think even those people are as much victim to Jordan Belfort as his actual financial victims.

I agree with your last paragraph, henrik.

"The movie shoots its wad early, and it's so repetitive. It really would've been more interesting if Dicaprio's character was actually affected by what he did. If he grew and changed like McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club."

That wouldn't be true to who the real-life Jordan Belfort is though. This is not really a Jake LaMotta broken man or Henry Hill kind of person. I just get incredible sociopath vibes. We never see a typical back-story because Scorsese does not feel it's necessary to give the character that projection. The character never changes because he was always the way he was. It's why Scorsese skips the prison scenes to show Belfort enjoying himself playing tennis in his prison facility.

How is some of the stuff not shocking? I think it is pretty universally surprising that this is not an NC-17 film. It's much more explicit than Blue is the Warmest Color, in my opinion.