Early on in Martin Scorsese’s new film, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) cheerfully describes money as being like “mainlining adrenaline.” Belfort, the real-life rogue trader who set up Long Island stockbroking film Stratton Oakmont, is depicted in the film as reckless, obnoxious, and sexist. Nonetheless, as portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, he is a very likeable character. We can’t help but root for him.
Everything about The Wolf of Wall Street is excessive. It’s a three-hour orgy of greed, indulgence and swearing (there are more than 500 utterances of the F word – a screen record for a drama), and it follows Belfort on his journey from small-town fraudster to big-time crook. On the way, we see him set up his notorious brokerage firm, organise dwarf-throwing parties (the real-life Belfort denies that little people were ever thrown), consume his own body weight in Quaaludes, blow cocaine up a hooker’s butt and have a candle shoved up his own butt by …show more content…
On this level, the film is also a buddy story. Donnie has far more screen-time than Belfort’s trophy wife, Naomi (Margot Robbie). Both are equally addicted to Quaaludes. Both are capable of extremely immature behaviour (at one point, Donnie swallows a goldfish). In one of the film’s weirdest scenes, they pop pills that make them unable to move or speak. We see Belfort in what he calls his ‘cerebral palsy’ phase, crawling down the stairs of the country club and driving his car home like a madman. The scene has a warped, cartoonish
Everything about The Wolf of Wall Street is excessive. It’s a three-hour orgy of greed, indulgence and swearing (there are more than 500 utterances of the F word – a screen record for a drama), and it follows Belfort on his journey from small-town fraudster to big-time crook. On the way, we see him set up his notorious brokerage firm, organise dwarf-throwing parties (the real-life Belfort denies that little people were ever thrown), consume his own body weight in Quaaludes, blow cocaine up a hooker’s butt and have a candle shoved up his own butt by …show more content…
On this level, the film is also a buddy story. Donnie has far more screen-time than Belfort’s trophy wife, Naomi (Margot Robbie). Both are equally addicted to Quaaludes. Both are capable of extremely immature behaviour (at one point, Donnie swallows a goldfish). In one of the film’s weirdest scenes, they pop pills that make them unable to move or speak. We see Belfort in what he calls his ‘cerebral palsy’ phase, crawling down the stairs of the country club and driving his car home like a madman. The scene has a warped, cartoonish