By Joan Alperin Schwartz
'The Wolf of Wall Street', directed by Martin Scorsese, is the true story of New York Stockbroker, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), who in the late 1980's, goes from selling penny stocks and IPO's, to a life filled with total corruption.
Jordan found success in his early 20's, as the founder of the brokerage firm, Stratton Oakmont...It's there, that he got the title, The Wolf of Wall Street.
His life was all about money, power, women, sex and drugs...Lots and lots of drugs including, Qualudes, coke, and crack.
Jordan became so wealthy that nothing was out of his reach, as long as it had a price tag. But no matter how much money he accumulated, it was never enough to satisfy his insatiable appetite.
Jordan was basically a immoral dude...He couldn't care less about all the people he hurt...This is a guy that would wipe out his own grandmother, if it meant putting money in his pocket....
Sound familiar? Of course it does...Belfort was exactly like all the Bernie Madoffs who almost destroyed our economy and did destroy the lives of thousands of people.
The only people Jordan was loyal to, were the men in his inner circle, including, his right hand man and fellow crook, Donnie Azoff, (Jonah Hill, who's never been better)
Jordan couldn't even be honest with his beautiful, hot, super sexy wife, Naomi, (Australian actress, Margo Robbie) who he professes to love more than anything on earth.
The film is outrageously funny...From DeCaprio's and Hill's brilliant demonstration of what it's like to overdose on Quaaludes to the over the top naked orgies, there was nothing Belcort and his crew wouldn't do, to have a little fun and spend the millions they illegally made.
I think that 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' is one of Scorsese's best films in a long time.
Yes this is a comedy, but ultimately, this is the story about a man, that becomes so addicted to power, he's convinced no one can stop him and that no one, (meaning the FBI)could ever bring him down. In the end, there's nothing funny about that.
Leonard DiCaprio is absolutely brilliant capturing all of Jordan's layers...His charm, his sense of entitlement, and most importantly, thanks to a brilliant scene with Matthew McConaughey, how he learned how to sell anything...to anyone.
Rounding out the cast is Rob Reiner as DiCaprio's father, Kyle Chandler as the FBI agent, who's determined to destroy Jordan's empire, and Jean Dujardin ('the Artist') the Swiss banker, who is kind enough to help Jordan hide his many millions.
'The Wolf of Wall Street', written by Terrence Winter, ('The Sopranos', 'Boardwalk Empire') based on Belfort's autobiography, is definitely my favorite film of the year, with 'American Hustle' right behind it.
So of course, I gave the film, which opens in theatres, Christmas Day, December 25, 2013, five bagels out of five, with everything on them..
Check out our video for more of my thoughts and what I think John's bagel rating would have been.
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