"The Wolf of Wall Street" Movie Review

 

            

            This is the first Martin Scorsese film I have ever seen. After seeing this, I feel that I need to see more of his films. The Wolf ofWall Street is directed by Martin Scorsese and stars mainly LeonardoDiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Matthew McConaughey. It is Biography/Comedy/Crime about a true story in the 90’s about a man named Jordan Belfort (portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film) who starts to learn how to make the “big bucks” and gets his own company that he uses to make millions and millions of dollars, but not all legally. We see how he uses this money and how many of the things that happened, happened. This is a three-hour-long movie and it is a comedy, so many people will say “Three hour comedy?!!! That is way too long, I’m not seeing that!” but I will not say a film is too long unless I have already seen it and the script and execution of the film do not account for the running time, therefore, any interest the film had is lost and it becomes dull. That never happens here.

            

            I am going to talk about the cons of the film first. Though, I have nothing to talk about because I have no cons with this film. I went into this film with expectations, but it went above and beyond my expectations. I loved this movie.

            I will start with the awe-inspiring, excellent performances. Every actor gives a top-notch performance in this film. Scorsese was able to get the actors to do just the right things in just the right way. Leonardo DiCaprio really gives the best performance of his career. Saying he is excellent in this role would be an understatement. He is nearly, if not, perfect in this film. Jonah Hill also gives the best performance in his career by a long shot. He is excellent in this film. Matthew McConaughey is also excellent in the film. Though, they were not the only ones that were so fantastic in the film. Other side characters were, too. Margot Robbie was fantastic as her character and Kyle Chandler was fantastic as his. The list would go on and on, but I have my point across: this is top-notch acting.

            

            Though, there is also an excellent and near-perfect screenplay. Every line of dialogue seemed to mean something. Every action by a character seemed to mean something. Everything was there for a reason. Though, this dialogue was as best as it could be. That is where the screenplay really shines. Real essence and reality was brought to the characters. They, of course, seemed like real people. Sometimes I could connect with them and they were very believable. Within about the forty-five minute mark of this movie, I did not see Jonah Hill, I saw Donnie Azoff. I did not see Leonardo DiCaprio, I saw Jordan Belfort. I did not see Matthew McConaughey, I saw Mark Hanna. Another excellent thing about the script is how humorous this movie is. I will say that this is a hilarious film, and it is hard for me to say that about a movie. But this is the funniest movie I have ever seen. But humor was not the only thing this movie rid on. Some of the dialogue was like the dialogue that is in Quentin Tarantino movies, especially Pulp Fiction. It is just people sitting down and talking, but it is awesome. That happened several times in this film.

            

            I have already told you that this is the first movie I have seen that is directed by Martin Scorsese. I now know how fantastic of a director he is. This film has excellent direction. The shots lingered and scenes went on a big longer than you would think they would. The tone stays consistent throughout the film, which was a problem many people had. Many people thought that the tone did not stay consistent, but I think that it was a balance of comedy and drama. Scorsese really uses the camera to showcase characters’ thoughts and feelings, creating smooth transitions. But just the camerawork in general was excellent. Everything was directed so unconventionally that I could hardly tell that these were shots taken by a camera. It is not like the modern pattern of shooting scenes. The film also looks great and has great cinematography. Everything looks like it should, while also reflecting on the tone very well. There were no moments where the film was in a green screen environment. Everything looked great.

            

            For a three-hour film to be impressive, it has to have little to no dull moments. Well this film had no dull moments at all. I was always at least really enjoying this film, even though I loved most of it. From scene to scene, it was also huge and consistent. The pacing stayed the same throughout the entire film, so it was never switching from huge, huge scenes to dull scenes. It was always huge and extraordinary throughout the entire running time. It also got very, very intense in the third act. Some people believe the transition between the second and third act was not good, and its tone was inconsistent. The transition of tone between the second and third act was slow, but not drawn-out. As it went on, it became less and less of the tone in the second act, and more and more of the tone in the third act. I think that it was an excellent transition of tone that still never got dull. Part of the reason it never got dull is because it is very, very unpredictable to the point of which I stopped trying to predict events, because I had no idea what was coming up.

            People might say that since this is a comedy, it is saying that all of these illegal things are okay to do, but it is not. There are about six themes that are introduced into the movie, and about four of them have to do about how all of this is wrong, and it goes around the central message that “No matter how good it can be, it will always come back to haunt you”. I am not sure that that message is the central message or if I got the message correct, but that is my interpretation of it. I will not tell you the themes of the movie, because they are somewhat spoilers. The film also has an excellent conclusion. It wraps things up how they need to be in almost the best way possible. That is due to the screenplay, direction, and the actors.

This is one of the best films I have ever seen. No, it is not one of my all-time favorites, but it is right under them. I think that it is a spectacular film.

Through its awe-inspiring performances, excellent screenplay, and excellent direction, The Wolf of Wall Street is an absolutely hilarious masterpiece that never gets dull throughout its three-hour running time.