The Wolf of Wall Street Movie Review

The Wolf of Wall Street was one hell of a movie. Fair warning if you can’t handle sex, nudity, and lots of illegal drug use this movie is just not for you. I knew it was going to be over-the-top when three minutes in DiCaprio is snorting drugs out of someone's orifice. Yea not very subtle. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the man who brought us Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Departed, it's no surprise that it was a 3-hour long movie.

So Scorsese and DiCaprio take us into the world of Jordan Belfort, starting off as young married man trying to make it on Wall Street. He receives a low position at stockbroking company where he meets his mentor Mark Hanna played by Mathew McConaughey. McConaughey only had all of ten minutes of screen time but he was brilliant. Hilarious and gave Jordan the guidance he needed to become the man he was destined to become, which by the way is a scumbag. But there was no denying that Belfort had a special talent, and that was his ability to convince people to do what he wanted. He quickly learned what it took to make money and his life spiraled into chaos.

Belfort starts to amass a fortune by selling useless penny stocks with his aggressive and charismatic sales pitch technique. Along the way he meets Donnie Azoff, played by Jonah Hill and after getting caught cheating by his wife, remarries a beautiful, young model named Naomi, played Margot Robbie. Together Belfort and Azoff start a company out of a garage and turn it into an empire with the help of numerous other bottom feeders, hungry to earn a buck.

 Making more money that any person would know what to do with, they start living like rock stars. And this film does not hold back! More sex and drugs than one is usually accustomed to seeing on the big screen for sure. The thing is that despite the fact that Jordan Beflort became disgustingly rich off of ripping people of, DiCaprio makes it so that you don't hate him right away! He does such a phenomenal job as Belfort. He gives many long speeches throughout the movie to crowds of people, or you could even call them his followers. It’s as if he had a cult following. But the speeches were just so moving and impressive that you couldn’t hate the guy.

Needless to say Belfort did not live the life of the rich and famous forever. It’s great to see when his world just comes crashing down on top of him, but you almost feel bad for the guy. Almost. I enjoyed both his and Jonah Hill’s performance very much. This was the first movie I’ve seen Jonah Hill play a somewhat serious role since Moneyball, but don’t get me wrong he’s still Jonah Hill from Superbad and 21 Jump Street and a good deal of his scenes will have you shaking your head or keeled over in laughter. But one cannot forget the beautiful Margot Robbie. Despite her shock-inspiring nude scene, we can't allow it to over-shadow her performance. She went toe-to-toe with Leo and I'd say that's not an easy task for a new actor.  I give The Wolf of Wall Street an 8 out of 10. The Scorsese and DiCaprio partnership is relentless!