The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – Review

Review: The Wolf of Wall Street is an insane, hysterical, and utterly compelling look at the American Dream (i.e. what has become a culture of consumerism and materialism run amuck). The film is about Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker who worked his way up from peddling penny stocks to owning and running his own brokerage firm – making millions of dollars in the process, allowing him to live a lavish and extravagantly debauched lifestyle. However, not all his business practices are legal, leading to an FBI investigation. Belfort has the money to fight it, but will his ego allow him to skate under the radar?

With The Wolf of Wall Street, director Martin Scorsese has made a new kind of gangster film, one that somewhat adheres to the genre conventions (the rise from nothing to become powerful, not being able to walk away, and the eventual fall), but plays so much more audacious. In some ways, the film feels a lot like Casino (minus all the violence). It is essentially the story of a man who can see all the angles (in this case the ability to sell anything to anyone) but is ultimately pulled down and betrayed by those closest to him.

It works very well in this way as a character piece, but what makes it so electric and engaging is that Scorsese brings the audience into a world and into the psyche of a man that are held as the ideal in popular culture (extreme wealth and privilege and all that comes with it – who does not dream about being grotesquely rich) only to twist it revealing the drug and sex fueled cultural underbelly of Wall Street, and the men and women who operate seemingly without morals to make as much money as possible while exploiting their most exaggerated desires, degrading humanity with the power of their cash. It is a world that seems so enticing, even in its darkest, most dehumanizing moments. The audience is as much thrilled as they are shocked and/or incensed by what Scorsese shows them. This wildly inappropriate lifestyle (compared to their normal average daily lives) just seems too much fun (even if they hate to admit it), despite being utterly shallow and vain. If only for a moment, the audience is swept up by the striking charisma of Belfort and lose themselves in the never-ending party (much like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby).

What makes the film so much different than Scorsese’s past gangster films however is that The Wolf of Wall Street, while structurally abiding to the formula, plays as a comedy – an insane and amazing comedy. The film is probably the funniest film of 2013. Scorsese is also completely fearless with the material. He allows scenes to be milked for every piece of comedic gold (something that often pays off with great and wonderful rewards – for example the whole sequence following Belford’s consumption of the lemon Quaaludes). Scorsese also goes big with the performances he garners, which fits the tone fantastically. Everything feels a bit over the top, yet everything works perfectly within the context of the tone and the narrative. Scorsese is able to find the perfect balance of comedy and character.

However, the film is not going to work for everyone. It is extremely graphic and crude, which will have a polarizing effect. Belfort is also a mostly unlikable character. He is downright despicable, in fact. And yet, Scorsese’s direction and Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance create a man who completely commands the screen, and like with the best antiheroes in film history the audience cannot help but find themselves rooting for him (despite disagreeing with everything he is). Belfort is charismatic and charming – and even though the audience knows he is destined to fall (as that is what the genre dictates must happen), part of them wants to see him win. Although, some will find him unredeemable and will be unaffected by his charm, and for those viewers the film will likely lose a lot of its infectious appeal.

Something that is also very interesting about The Wolf of Wall Street is what it says about America (and really the rest of the world that is now also beginning to buy into the culture of materialism, consumerism, and plain greed). Really, there is nothing to like in these characters. All of them are awful people, but again the audience cannot help but find them and their lifestyle magnetic and alluring (even if it is soulless and empty). Have we as people become so consumed with greed that we want the world at the cost of everyone else? That is what Wall Street is founded on. It is an industry built on getting rich on clients’ money without regard for their wellbeing, yet clients continue to line up in droves. Trading stocks is no different than gambling for the average investor, and many brokers will say anything to push their product because all they care about is the commission (as the clients are already hooked by the thrill of the roll of the dice). The whole financial industry really is just a cesspool of greed, allowing the rich to great richer at the cost of everyone and everything else. Scorsese’s film clearly details the people and culture of this industry. As exaggerated as the film may appear, this is what Wall Street is actually like, what the people are actually like – and yet people continue to give them their money, because they too want their chance to be rich. Each stock holds the promise of something spectacular, just like the turn of each new card or throw of the dice. Humanity very well may already be lost – Scorsese is just reminding us how we got here.

The Wolf of Wall Street is completely entertaining. It is contagiously funny. Using charm and the allure of the American Dream, it pulls the viewer in, exposing them to the crazy world of the Wall Street broker – a world that is at the same time unbelievable, engrossing, and disgusting.

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: The Wolf of Wall Street is everything one has come to expect from a Martin Scorsese gangster film, yet unlike anything else the director has done to date. The film grabs the viewer from the start and does not let them go until the credits – whether they are watching with giddy joy or shocked disgust. It is probably premature to say this (being that I have only seen the film once), but it might be my favorite Scorsese film (my other favorites are Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and The Departed). I just found it to be incredibly funny, captivating, and thoroughly compelling (and maybe it makes me deplorable, but I loved every minute of it).

Scorsese uses music extremely well in his films, and The Wolf of Wall Street is no different. The film features a fantastic soundtrack, with iconic songs that give the viewer a sense of the time period of each sequence and sets the stage tonally. Rodrigo Prieto’s cinematography is fantastic as well (probably the best work of his career to date). His collaboration with Scorsese gives the film a heightened feel, as if the characters and their world exist on a different plain of reality (which in many ways it does). Bob Shaw’s production design is also top notch. While the characters feel very big and maybe even overblown at times, his work seems to ground everything in reality, as everything looks and feels honest to the world.

The performances in the film are brilliant. Jean Dujardin is a lot of fun in a small supporting role, while Kyle Chandler brings a dose of ‘everyman’ to his supporting role as the FBI agent investigating Belfort. Jon Bernthal is great as Brad, a member of Belfrot’s inner circle. He plays the quintessential New Jersey meathead type. Matthew McConaughey is also fantastic as Belfort’s mentor and inductor into a world of loose morals and unbelievable greed (continuing his very strong year, which also includes Mud and Dallas Buyers Club). Newcomer Margot Robbie is wonderful as Belfort’s second wife Naomi. She almost steals every scene she is in – scenes opposite other brilliant actors and great performances – as she just pulls attention towards her (and not just because of her looks). She has a great energy epitomizing a person using whatever they have to socially climb. Jonah Hill also steals scenes as Belfort’s best friend and business partner Donnie (it is his best work to date). Hill plays Donnie to be just a complete asshole, constantly presenting himself as an antagonist in every situation. He is utterly unlikable, and yet so dynamic. Leonardo DiCaprio turns in one of his best performances as well as Belfort. At first he seems like a sincere, nice guy – but once he gets a taste of the lifestyle that money can afford him, the complete abandoning of morals is intoxicatingly freeing. He can do whatever he wants, literally (or so he feels). DiCaprio just has a lot of fun with the character, which in turn translates full on for the audience who also has fun with him.

Summary & score: The Wolf of Wall Street jumps off the screen, forcing the viewer to experience something powerful (be it sheer jovial excitement, utter amazement, scornful shock, or discernment). It is a modern masterwork that showcases the dark side of the American Dream. 9/10 

Little White Lies (2012) – Review

Review: Little White Lies (Les petits mouchoirs) is able to touch on almost every emotion as it utterly engages the audience. The film is about a group of friends that takes their annual vacation to the seaside minus one member of the group (Ludo), who was just gravely injured in a car accident. Emotions and tensions are high between the members of the group, as they both deal with the issues in their own lives and the sadness resulting from the state of their friend. Writer-director Guillaume Canet excels dramatically with this film, sculpting fantastic characters that draw the audience in. Ensemble films have multiple challenges – firstly, telling a cohesive story with enough character moments across a big cast to engage the audience and present fully fleshed out characters. Canet does this very effectively by economically giving enough about each character for the audience to completely understand them and where they are coming from. Every character is relatable and fully developed. Nothing feels forced or fake. None of the characters are there merely to forward the plot, which is very rare in ensemble dramas. Even the event of Ludo injuring himself is not what brings the characters together; rather it only heightens the emotional state of the narrative, Ludo’s scene at the beginning serving more as a prologue setting the tone. Thus, the audience completely enthralled with the characters, Canet’s narrative is able to be very funny and then very sad the next moment, dictating the emotions of the audience. The success of the characters is also due to the wonderful performances by the cast and the great writing. The script has a great familiarity to it, as if the audience has known these characters forever. There is also enough diversity among the character stories that each viewer will be able to at least latch on to one in particular, which is important to the narrative’s overall success (the audience really caring about the characters, or at least one specifically). Canet’s shooting style also pulls the audience in and makes them feel as if they were a member of the group with lots of medium shots that often have more than one character in the frame. If there is a weakness in the narrative, it is that the film is very much a slice of real everyday life and not more of an inflated journey. There is nothing wrong with dramas that explore average life, but for some audience members they have an uphill battle fully engaging them. The narrative journey of a character outside their comfort zone is usually the basis for a narrative, and this film does not seem to push these characters outside their normal lives, more so it deals with them addressing their issues. However, again, the skill of the actors and Canet elevate the narrative to be the very compelling piece that it is. Little White Lies is one of the better ensemble dramas in recent memory (similar to Magnolia, L’Auberge espagnole and The Barbarian Invasions).

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: Guillaume Canet is a very good actor (as I very much enjoyed his work in Joyeux Noel, Farewell and Last Night), but is becoming an even better writer-director. Tell No One was a great mystery thriller, and Little White Lies is one of the best dramas of 2012 so far (in America at least, as this came out in 2010 in Europe). I am very much looking forward to his next film Blood Ties (his Hollywood debut). The film’s score, consisting mostly of American classic rock favorites, is brilliant and emotionally fits the tone perfectly, while also adding to what the characters feel on-screen. Cinematographer Christophe Offenstein and production designer Philippe Chiffre (both of whom worked on Canet’s last Tell No One) do fantastic work as well. The narrative is steeped in realism, and the design of the film contributes to that, while also filling in character information with the style of the wardrobe and the living space of each character. The photography also presents the narrative as a real life story, as the lighting is fairly straightforward. Yet, Offenstein’s work is also very beautiful, both in its ability to capture the actors’ faces but also the landscapes. The prologue with Ludo, shot entirely in one long take, is brilliant and one of the most artistically compelling cinematic moments of 2012, as well. The performances make the film, however. All the actors are great, but there are a few standouts. Jean Dujardin (coming off his breakthrough in America with The Artist) is wonderful as Ludo. That scene is completely vital and visceral as it energizes and ultimately shocks the audience. Gilles Lellouche and Laurent Lafitte are also very good, often lightening the mood, yet still carrying a lot of the dramatic weight. Benoit Magimel is great in the film as Vincent, a character who is struggling internally with the very question of who he is. He has to play most of it with his face and eyes, and does so very well. Marion Cotillard (as always) is fantastic, playing both comedy (her scene riding the raft is probably the funniest moment in the film) and drama very well. She can completely command the screen. Francois Cluzet steals the film, however. He gets to play more physical comedy and drama than the rest, but still has a deep humanity to his performance.

Summary & score: Ensemble dramas are often shallow peripherally engaging works, but Little White Lies has well developed characters and wholly captivating performances and drama. It is a great ensemble piece. 8/10

The Artist (2011) – Review

Review: The Artist is a funny and heartfelt romance. The film is about silent movie star George Valentin, whose life is left in ruins when cinema switches to sound leaving him behind. But, there is potential light at the end of the tunnel for George in the form of rising star Peppy Miller, whom he falls for upon their first meeting. Much like with Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, writer-director Michel Hazanavicius pays tribute to the history of cinema, specifically the silent era. However, Hazanavicius takes it a step further, making an almost completely silent film, and very much in the style of that era. The silent era of cinema saw some of the most creative and artistic films (and filmmakers like Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Sergei M. Eisenstein, King Vidor, Charles Chaplin and Buster Keeton among others) in cinema history – sound setting the industry creatively back decades some historians say. And much like with Hugo, a lot of the charm of this film comes from its homage to the past. Silent films relied completely on visual storytelling, and for the most part Hazanavicius is up to the task – especially with a fantastic beginning and ending to the film. However, the middle is where the issue lies with this film. Hazanavicius is able to convey the narrative and character journeys throughout, but the pacing falls apart in the middle of the film and it drags horribly. It is a shame really, as the end is so good, but most of the momentum is lost by the time it comes around. I think that like with Hugo, the novelty and nostalgic aspects of the film greatly outweighs the shortcomings in the minds of many familiar with film history, but taking the film at face value the pacing and overly drawn-out narrative leave the film not working quite as well as it could have. Not to say it is a bad film, as this is far from the case; it is a very good film, just not a great one (which it could have been). There is also a postmodern aspect to the film that is interesting. George loses his career due to his inability to adapt to sound – even having a nightmare in which objects make sounds when interacted with climaxing with full on ambient noise and women laughing at him. Throughout, he is unable to speak, or get his true feeling across to Peppy – be it due to pride or other emotions/circumstances. Finally, when he is able to speak, confronting his fears, the whole film is illuminated with sound. It is quite powerful. The homage and postmodern characteristics of The Artist propel it above the romance narrative it otherwise is, but Hazanavicius is not quite a good enough filmmaker to make a great silent film.

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: Michel Hazanvicius has made three prior feature films (all comedies), but none to the acclaim that The Artist is receiving – which will make his next project not only highly anticipated but also something that will likely see distribution in America. I am interested to see how he follows this film up. Ludovic Bource’s score is good. It accompanies and reinforces the characters and narrative well, but it is greatly overshadowed by the use of Bernard Herrmann’s score for Vertigo at times (Herrmann’s score occupies the best moments of this film – here is a sample). Shooting in the customary 1.33:1 ratio, Guillaume Schiffman’s cinematography is very good (but not as good as other recent black and white films of note – The Man Who Wasn’t There, The White Ribbon and Wings of Desire to name a few), nor does it quite have the fluidity of the silent film masters. Production designer Laurence Bennett does maybe the best aesthetic work of the film, capturing the essence of the era. Performance wise, the film has a lot of small roles (almost like celebrity cameos) – the best among them is John Goodman as the studio boss. The film’s two leads are both brilliant however (both just missing out on making my yearend awards). Berenice Bejo has a ton of energy and charisma. She really lights up the screen. Jean Dujardin plays his part so big, but also has enough true emotion that the viewer completely connects with him – having a very cute dog as a sidekick also does not hurt.

Summary & score: The way The Artist brings the silent era back to life is magical and not something to be missed, if only the pacing and narrative could have been a bit tighter. 7/10