He's able to found his own company, Stratton Oakmont, and surround himself with cronies like Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), who shares his taste for quaaludes. He subsequently loses his job but reinvents himself as a purveyor of "penny stocks." Fraud abounds in this ill-regulated dark corner of the financial industry and Belfort rides the wave to wealth.
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It's a rags-to-riches story about a hard-working broker who breaks into the industry in the late '80s and has the misfortune of earning his license on Black Monday, the day of the biggest crash since the '20s. Parts are presented in flashback with DiCaprio providing a self-mocking voiceover. The Wolf of Wall Street tells the tale of Belfort's rise and fall. These are reminiscent of Alec Baldwin's scathing monologue at the beginning of Glengarry Glen Ross but, instead of galvanizing an audience for ten minutes, DiCaprio does it for three hours. Throughout the movie, Belfort gives pep talks to his ever-growing flock of broker disciples.
The result is an astounding, courageous performance the likes of which we haven't yet seen from the talented actor. This is DiCaprio's fifth outing for Scorsese but the first time in which the director has turned him loose. This is about how the pursuit of money above all else can transform a hard-working family man into a kingpin of immorality and debauchery. There's also copious drug use and frequent profanity but very little in the way of physical violence. The Wolf of Wall Street is replete with naked bodies and acts of sexual depravity.
Throughout his long career, Scorsese has been known for pushing the envelope of the MPAA's R-rating. Although The Wolf of Wall Street features some strongly dramatic elements, many of the film's flourishes are designed for laughs. As a result, Scorsese can amplify elements of Belfort's life to accentuate the comedy or the tragedy of a given situation. This isn't a documentary and it's not intended to be one. The director is quick to point out that the screenplay, credited to Terence Winter, is a fictionalization of Belfort's life and takes numerous liberties. Many of Scorsese's best films have used real-life stories as their underpinning, and this is no exception. He is an endlessly fascinating character who holds viewers' attention from beginning to end.
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Yet, by shaping the movie the way he does, Scorsese presents Belfort as a charismatic Caligula. He's the kind of white-collar criminal whose activities led to the 2008 economic melt-down and who would feel at home swapping stories with Bernie Madoff. Viewed objectively, Belfort - a materialistic, drug-addicted, womanizing thief - is the kind of character who could easily fill the villain's role.
Although an indictment of greed, the movie establishes the anti-hero, in this case Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), as a quasi-sympathetic figure. The movie isn't a nonstop treadmill of jokes and gags instead, the blackly humorous elements are incorporated into a screenplay that questions the "get rich" mentality that has always infected Wall Street. The Wolf of Wall Street joins After Hours as the most openly comedic films Scorsese has made. Nowhere is this more evident that in The Wolf of Wall Street. Scorsese is about far more than mobsters, De Niro, Pesci, and profanity-laden tirades. Some may recall that he followed up Casino with Kundun, that he entered Merchant-Ivory territory with The Age of Innocence, or that he predated the Coen Brothers in surreal comedy with After Hours. Scorsese, however, has never been easy to pigeonhole he has always enjoyed playing in unconventional sandboxes. His most celebrated movies are Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Departed - all intense, uncompromising samples of cinema at its finest.
When one thinks of a Martin Scorsese film, the first images that come to mind are dark, violent, serious ones.
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