The Wolf Of Wall Street Movie Review (2013)

When you think of a Martin Scorsese movie people tend to imagine a dark, gritty, violent and seriously toned gangster movie like Goodfellas or Casino. But during the winter of 2013 released a movie that changed people’s perception of what to expect when going to see a Martin Scorsese film, that film was The Wolf Of Wall Street.

The Wolf Of Wall Street tells the story of Jordan Belford (Leonardo Di Caprio) a hard work stock broker who breaks into the Wall Street scene in the late 1980s however finds himself without a job shortly after as the stock market crashes. However Jordan begins to reinvent himself as a purveyor of “penny stock” that allows Jordan to commit many accounts of fraud to increase his wealth, status of his company and ego.

I absolutely adore this movie, in my opinion Scorsese’s best shortly followed by Goodfellas. The reason I love this movie the most is the versatile themes and tones it portrays throughout, without it being too jarring for the audience. It hits every emotion that Scorsese sets out to hit in every scene. This followed up by the fantastic screenplay by Terance Winter gives the movie that comedic and tantalising character development that I don’t think you see in other Scorsese movies. With the movie being based on true events and people as well as a book written by Jordan Belford himself this gave Martin Scorsese and Terance Winter a lot to work with and many unbelievable stories to tell, in the crazy World of stock broking on Wall Street.

I absolutely love the arc of Jordan in this movie and how all his actions benefit or undermine those around him. What Scorsese, Winter and Di Caprio through his performance were able to do with Jordan is quite remarkable, as on the surface Belford is a very dislikable character, being a drug addict, egocentric maniac, Misogynistic and feeding off others misfortune and Naivety to benefit. However the way the story is told through Jordan’s perspective, Scorsese is able to shape Jordan to be a charismatic and fascinating character and with Di Caprio in that role there was no one better to do it.

I still fully believe to this day Di Caprio was robbed of an Oscar in this role. He is just absolutely electric, he steals the show whatever scene he is in. Whether he’s standing in front of his entire staff team distributing a powerful speech or crawling to his car after a drug trip he gives Jordan a sense of arrogance and charm no other actor can pull off.

This Movie is just littered with gems in terms of Hollywood actors that are all on there A game. From Mathew McConaughey to Margot Robbie everyone is so perfectly casted and I honestly wouldn’t change anyone. However someone I want to bring up specifically is Jonah Hill, this is by far his best performance in any movie he has done to this day and there’s a reason he was nominated for his role as Jordan Belford’s equally charismatic business partner Donnie Azoff.

I really like Rodrigo Prieto’s cinematography in this movie. He’s worked with Scorsese several times over the years and provides the audience the usual extreme long shots of city skylines and over the shoulder shots during character interactions. However something different in the movie was the use of breaking the fourth wall which Jordan does several time’s. When this happens the camera is solely focused on Jordan and anything he talks about. I thought this was a really clever and unique way of catching the audiences attention during these segments as Jordan conveys all kinds of broker jargon to the audience this way the audience doesn’t get too confused when certain words or phrases are used.

So in a small summary this bio-pic of the rise and fall of Jordan Belford is so unique, engaging and beautifully crafted by a talented director. It’s so well shot and acted by all actors and actresses, that alone is the reason it shouldn’t be missed off your movie list and why it’s one of my favourite movies of all time.

Thanks for reading this movie review, I hope you enjoyed reading.