Will DiCaprio finally win an Oscar?

Film review: The Wolf of Wall Street

MANILA, Philippines - While other actors around his age are mostly floundering amidst misguided efforts to assert their stature as action heroes or box-office draws, Leonardo DiCaprio is surefootedly going from one incredible project to another. This should not be a surprise. He already excels in a lot of things. 

Who needs the box-office? He has Titanic, one of the all-time champions. Who needs the big biopic? He has Howard Hughes in The Aviator plus J. Edgar Hoover. And what about the literary figure? Just The Great Gatsby in the bag. He even has such an excellent assortment of men of the law in various forms, flawed, driven, tortured by their sins or of those around them.

And who can forget how Steven Spielberg brought out his alternately innocent and scheming con man in Catch Me If You Can? He was so charming that you just hated Tom Hanks for hounding him to jail. 

It is another con man, also young, perverse and thoroughly deprived of scruples or even just a sense of propriety who has emerged as the greatest, character whom DiCaprio has so far created. Also based on a real-life figure, he is Jordan Belfort, a broker who rose from hawking cheap stocks to making millions out of naïve investors in the late ’80s. This guy, who made $23M in two hours in his heyday, is brought to life in the most depraved, amusing, gut-wrenching rollercoaster ride ever seen on the screen in The Wolf of Wall Street.

At the helm is Martin Scorsese, the great director behind the likes of Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, The Age of Innocence and Hugo. Then if we are to go by their work history together, DiCaprio is not only one of his favorite actors, Scorsese has also been on a long crusade to give him a Best Actor award. These past years had seen them work together in Gangs of New York, Shutter Island, The Departed and The Aviator. The trophy finally happened on their fifth effort. DiCaprio was recently named Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes for The Wolf of Wall Street.

The tale is actually somewhat flimsy. The plot reminds me of that popular saying about greed back in the ’80s. He who dies with the most toys wins and Belfort’s life is all about the playthings. Mentored by Matthew McConaughey in an arresting turn as trader Mark Hanna, Belfort becomes such a big earner at the stock market that he is soon wallowing in money and all the opulence, drugs, sex and other excesses that such largess can buy. While in the midst of all these, Belfort’s upstart firm, Stratton Oakmont, catches the attention of FBI agent Patrick Denham played by Kyle Chandler, who launches an investigation. This begins Belfort’s downfall.

Based on Belfort’s autobiographical book and written for the screen by Terence Winter of The Sopranos, it is not much of a story. Although truly exciting, the screenplay’s only fully realized character is Belfort. He is the one who rises from naïve newbie in the market to top honcho of the most debauched trading firm that ever existed and later falls down hard. Everyone else is an accessory meant to populate scenes and to help progress the picture. 

What Wolf of Wall Street is, is a series of vignettes or a set of intricately fashioned dioramas. It shows how people could be manipulated for gain and become faceless collateral damage, how money breeds greed and how all these co-exist with sex, drugs and the other accoutrements of the newly rich from 20 years ago.

 Truth to tell, I have no idea of how the stock market works and only the most basic knowledge about pyramiding or the Ponzi scheme. I would have been truly bored by attempts to explain those in a movie even one starring DiCaprio. Scorsese makes no attempt to do so. What he does is set the film to maximum speed like one of Belfort’s Ferraris from the onset and then goes full throttle for nearly three hours of compelling scenes.

This would have been difficult to pull off but the master filmmaker that Scorsese is makes everything look so easy, breathtaking and enjoyable. Would you believe, he also elicits some of the best work from his brilliant staff. Editor Thelma Schoonmaker, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and even the legendary Robbie Robertson of The Band came in to supervise the music. And masterful performances from his entire cast, most of all Jonah Hill as Belfort’s cohort Donnie and Margot Robbie as his trophy wife Naomi.

The term is so cliché but this is the best one that describes DiCaprio’s work in Wolf: This is his greatest performance ever.  Not once did he falter. He cuts such a mesmerizing, unforgettable figure whether ranting his stuff as the rah-rah salesman or loving the pavement in a qualuude-induced euphoria. The chant should be starting now. Leo! Leo! Best Actor! Best Actor! Oscar! Oscar!