“I am NOT gonna die sober!”

Hello Everyone :-)

I adore Martin Scorsese. He’s a fan of Powell and Pressburger (creators of my favourite ever film ‘A Matter of Life and Death’), is wonderful in interviews and looks like he could be the best Granddad ever. He also makes fantastic films that come in all shapes and sizes. The most recent offering from this septuagenarian is ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. 

Jordan Belfort is the titular Wolf; at the beginning of his tale it’s 1987 and he’s a 20-something fresh faced upstart looking to make a name for himself in the stock market. After the financially disastrous Black Friday Jordan loses his high flying job and he ends up working as a penny stocks broker making a mint flogging crap shares. Jordan

goes from strength to strength, enlisting the help of Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) to set up his own firm, Stratton Oakmont. The firm makes an obscene amount of money through some less than legal deals and begins to build a reputation for their bachalian parties and huge displays of wanton greed. As Belfort’s empire of excess begins to spiral out of control the FBI start an investigation that could bring about the destruction of all Jordan has built.

‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ is like watching someone walk on a high wire for three hours, one wrong move and it could all come plummeting down but Scorsese absolutely nails it. In a way that is no less than masterful he manages to make Belfort

’s lifestyle look extravagant and wild but in such a way that we never want it for ourselves. He has more money than us, he has a beautiful wife, a massive house, dozens of flash cars; yet the characters are portrayed as vile ingrates that we want absolutely nothing to do with. However, what we do want to do is laugh at them and we do… a lot.

Admittedly, 3 hours long is too long and we could have probably lost one of the many scenes of explicit sex and drug taking. That said that film travels at such a speed that those three hours zip by and before you know it you’re wandering out of the cinema wondering how the hell it’s 11 o’clock.

This film is a bit of a vehicle for Scorsese’s darling Leonardo DiCaprio but there are some excellent supporting turns. Cristin Milioti as Jordan’s first wife Teresa and Margot Robbie as Naomi, Belfort’s second wife pretty much make up half of the female contingent of this movie and they both do a great job. The most notable of the supporting cast is Jonah Hill who is wonderful. Continuing his streak of ‘Best Supporting Actor’ roles, he is one of the funniest things in a very funny film.

In a role that, frankly, could not be done by anyone else, Leonardo DiCaprio is outstanding. He is such a charismatic actor that he makes the despicable, depraved Belfort utterly engaging. In a weird way it reminded me of Frédéric Bourdin in the fantastic documentary ‘The Imposter’. You don’t like him as such, but you can’t take your eyes off him. He also is the owner of the best piece of physical comedy I have seen in YEARS when it comes to the country club scene.

This isn’t a good vs evil story with villains and heroes, this isn’t a greek tragedy where the protagonist starts high is brought low by the turn of events; this is an altogether more realistic look at what happens when big shots get caught doing wrong. This is the ultimate sticking point in the movie and how you feel about it may well hinge on how you feel about the story’s resolution. I had a great time with ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ but after I’d seen it I felt like I needed a course of antibiotics to purge it from my system.

Now I fancy some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. So the big news in the world of Superhero movies is that the ever-wonderful Jesse Eisenberg has been cast as Lex Luthor in the ‘Batman vs Superman movie. This is exciting for a number of reasons,
A. Jesse Eisenberg’s continued employment is an excellent thing.

B. It’ll be very interesting to see how this younger Luthor interacts with the more mature Superman.

C. It’ll be even more interesting to see if he interacts with Batfleck and if so how.

I’m a massive fan of Eisenberg and I’m completely reassured that he can deliver an excellent Luthor.

2. And for the best news I’ve heard all day, Disney is hinting at a ‘Frozen’ sequel (I’m without a laptop at the minute so I haven’t posted my Frozen blog yet… needless to say I LOVED it). Also for any ‘Frozen’ Fans Odeon are showing special ‘Sing-a-long-a-Frozen’ screenings this weekend. I may well be in attendance :-)

That’s all for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x