Love, sex and debauchery in the stock market

Film review: The Wolf of Wall Street

MANILA, Philippines - The latest Martin Scorsese film invites us to look at a life led by convicted stock broker Jordan Belfort who got a cool $1M for the movie rights to his memoirs, The Wolf of Wall Street and Catching the Wolf of Wall Street which have been published in approximately 40 countries and translated into 18 languages.

In the beginning of the film, Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) narrates his humble beginnings in Wall Street where he learns the ins and outs of the stock market. He gets the feel of the place and likes it — at once. As if to dramatize the “beasts” that inhabit this world of high finance, a lion is seen wandering in the trading floor and sizing up his future meal.

But the first phase of Belfort’s life on Wall Street ends with the onslaught of a Black Monday. But he gets a second chance in a small-time trading company, makes it big through sheer hard work and shenanigan but in the process, he wins the world and loses his soul, so to speak.

Scorsese’s film rendition of The Wolf of Wall Street gives us an idea of the rotten side of trading where people do everything to sell and make profit — even from non-existing companies. He captures the energy and electricity in the trading floor where people make millions in hours — and lose them just as fast.

But to this reviewer who is not a follower of the stock market, the Scorsese film is an education. It allows you to see what kind of people (usually hard-driven to earn and make profit fast) inhabit the trading floors and what kind of families they raise. You see a different kind of bonding where straight men openly, if, comically dangle oral sex to their peers as reward for a job well done.

By and large, the Scorsese film reveals to us a world ruled by money and what it can buy — big houses, beautiful women and luxury yachts, among others. You see the wild parties, the orgies (both straight and gay) and stock brokers making love on a bed full of American dollars. You hear four-letter words uttered in different contexts all throughout the film and all at once, you see a world that is more than comfortable for its sybaritic greed and a world where people find “no nobility in poverty,” as Belfort intones in one of those meetings where he does everything to boost the morale of his trading partners.

There is a scene where trading partners and their cohorts hide dollar bills all over their bodies in one funny, if, satirical scene of money laundering in high places. You see Belfort romping with his beautiful sidekicks with jaw-dropping bodies in his expensive yacht and later even trying to subtly bribe the nosy FBI agent.

He is driven to earn money fast and to make sky-high profits. He is driven to hide them in Swiss banks and he is driven to live this life of utter debauchery regardless of what the future holds for him and his family.

Belfort is some character and he comes to life on screen with the enigmatic, if, electrifying portrayal by DiCaprio. Thus far, this is DiCaprio’s best performance and his most challenging.

The actor manages to give us fine contrast between his early clean start and his later debauched existence.

His co-actors were just as good and together, they make superb ensemble that remains taut and edifying to the very end. His first encounter with his first boss, Mark Hanna (played by Matthew McConaughey) is not only engaging, if, bizarre and it gives the viewers an uneasy look at what is in store for this new convert in the trading floor.

Needless to say, the ensemble actors of this film are all candidates for Best Supporting Actor trophies including Jonah Hill who plays Donnie Azoff, his new business partner in the new firm.

The cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto dazzles and he makes the orgy scenes look like a contemporary, if, comical re-make of Caligula.

The screenplay of Terence Winter sharply defines the characters and their milieu. In his hands, the four-letter words (and there are hundreds of them in this film) lose their original vile and begin to sound like modern-day devices for irony and sarcasm.

On the whole, Scorsese gives us a scathing portrait of stock market characters and what they stand for in this money-obsessed world. Under his able direction, we see layers of Belfort’s life go by and finely delineated by DiCaprio who is likely to figure prominently in the coming Oscar awards.

Like it or not, Scorsese reminds us that a good life — brought about by stock manipulation and highlighted by wild parties and frantic trips to the Swiss banks — is not likely to last.

If only for this lesson, The Wolf of Wall Street is a must-see for both cineastes and moralists. The superb acting of DiCaprio is of course the big bonus.

 (Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, released by MVP Entertainment and Viva International Pictures, is now showing in theaters.)