Review: The Wolf of Wall Street

Opulent. Fast. Excessive. Indulgent. Outrageously/Poignantly funny.

I thought the film hit the mark perfectly.   Very well done and timed just right.  The performances were all excellent, and believable, which grounds the seemingly unbelievable story.

The film is fast paced, as is Wall Street.  Strap-in-and-go BOOM and you are on the roller coaster holding on thinking wholly shit is this actually happening…

Wall Street in the 1980’s and 1990’s was rather unbelievable to me.  Some of it is so “over the moon” insane, I was dumbfounded.  It felt like an indulgent wild ride, with crazy ups and downs, ridiculous  antics, arrogant and outrageous behavior, no moral grounding, little to insufficient punishment, but still a soft landing and essentially a happy ending.  

Classic Wall Street exit.   “Take what you can, give nothing back” it's not just the motto of pirates.

In the beginning I imagined major consequences for Jordan Belfort's (Leonardo Dicaprio’s character) bad behavior and extreme lack of respect for the law or decency.  I imagined wrong.  In the film we are mostly blinded from the dark-side and largely spared from any downside.  In the film, Belfort has drug blinders on himself, he can't even see (or remember) most of his own bad behavior.  The reality for most of those Wall Street types...  The film, as I said, hits the mark. 

The greed, gluttony and extreme behavior may upset people.  Because the truth hurts.  The world doesn’t work that way for most people, most people, would never get away with such hedonism in their professional lives, or anywhere and the thought that people did, or do, infuriates some people.

The irrational exuberance of Wall Street traders circa 1980's-1990's is a fascinating era in American history.  It was literally 'Mad Men on crack' and it was pretty spectacular.  We can all laugh and joke about it, because it’s mostly a bygone era, and because it was so epic.

The extreme wealth and power portrayed in the film still exists today.  This is no secret.  However, the “boiler rooms” and stock-trader stories as depicted are largely a thing of the past on Wall Street.  

Reform of Wall Street, bailouts and Government oversight, and technology (like Googling or buying stock online), has hollowed out the core of the stock-broker culture depicted in the film, which for me allows the feelings of nostalgia, for a bygone era, to be indulged in without guilt or outcry. 

There are a lot of parallels between Hollywood and Wall Street, and the way Matthew McConaughey’s character explains Wall Street in the film, for me, also accurately describes Hollywood.  It’s essentially about taking as much from people as possible while giving back as little as possible.  Sad but true.

Capitalism.  We all love to hate it.  Much like people love to hate Hollywood movie stars themselves...

I recommend the film because I found it highly entertaining and authentic.