The Wolf of Wall Street

Surprising even myself, The Wolf of Wall Street has become my favorite movie of 2013.  Yep.  It's true.  This movie was by far the most entertaining film of the year. 

Revered filmmaker; Martin Scorsese directs the story of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio). From the American dream to corporate greed, Belfort goes from penny stocks and righteousness to IPOs and a life of corruption in the late 80s. Excess success and affluence in his early twenties as founder of the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont warranted Belfort the title – “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Money. Power. Women. Drugs. Temptations were for the taking and the threat of authority was irrelevant. For Jordan and his wolf pack, modesty was quickly deemed overrated and more was never enough. ~www.thewolfofwallstreet.com


The Wolf of Wall Street is an extremely sexually explicit film. Originally rated NC-17, it had some scenes slightly cut down to receive an R rating. Still, it is extremely graphic, and pushes the R rating to its limit. Extreme drug use and profanity throughout      Run time - 180 minutes

Leonardo DiCaprio never disappoints - and this extraordinary performance skyrockets him from an actor to a full blown movie star.  Starring as Jordan Belfort, an infamous stockbroker of the 90s (and convicted felon),  DiCaprio delivers his best work EVER. I was spellbound.  To me, his "best scene" was trying to function during a Quaalude trip that went horribly, horribly wrong.  It was amazing!  The movie shows lots of drug use, but not to worry.  The actors snorted crushed B vitamins for scenes involving cocaine. Although their noses felt uncomfortable, it gave them more energy to perform their scenes. (note to self)

Leonardo is not the only one who knocks it out of the park.  Jonah Hill will surely win an Oscar nod for his role as Donnie Azoff, Belfort's partner in crime and co-founder of Stratton.  (In real life, this guy's name is Danny Porush).  I have watched several interviews with Hill over the past couple of weeks, and man does he have some stories.  Working with Martin Scorsese was certainly a dream come true for him and he wanted to be taken seriously.  Demanding that he audition for the role (Scorsese wasn't going to require it), he was willing to do anything to prove himself worthy.  Even get knocked out cold after agreeing to take a real punch to the face

The punch lands and launches his fake teeth flew across the room, where they broke in two.  He talks about waking up as people are grabbing his face to get new teeth in before his face swelled and they lose the shot.  What a guy!

He begged to eat a real goldfish in one scene, saying everyone was being so real in this movie, he wanted to be as well.  (In the end, they wouldn't let him eat a real one - even bringing oldfish wranglers on set to monitor the well being of the fish)

A beautiful Australian actress names Margot Robbie stars as Naomi Belfort in her first major film role to date.  

In one interview, she talks about accidentally getting lost in a scene and slapping DiCaprio  more violently than she intended.  After the slap and her scream of "FUCK YOU", there was a stunned silence on the set; followed by a burst of laughter.  Terrified what DiCaprio was thinking, he surprised her by asking her to hit him again.

I could go on and on about the characters and scenes of this movie, but the bottom line is this.  Go see this with your ADULT FRIENDS.  Not your parents.  Not your kids.  It is a fantastic movie (plan on a potty break - it lasts three hours), but I promise you will be glad you did.