The Wolf of Wall Street

It’s not that often that too big award seasons films come out in the same year that are so similar, but  this year it happened with American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street, both heavily feature the American Dream, although both taken from the criminal side of that dream. While there were significant differences between the two films, nothing was so significantly different as to the gulf in quality between those two films.

The basic plot follows Jordan Belfort (Leonardo Di Caprio) when he joins a stockbrockers a short period before the wall street crash that occurred in the mid 1980’s. Following that he sets up his own firm, selling penny shares to regular people. Needless to say some of the firms actions aren’t legal, something that attracts the eagle eyes attention of the FBI.

The film revolves around Di Caprio’s Belfort, a man who is self admittedly obsessed with money and classes it as his biggest addiction, when you see just how badly he is addicted to other substances you realise just how big of statement this is. How much he changes or evolves throughout the film is hard to say, as he is driven by greed mainly and is much more interested in having as good a time as is physically possible. There are points that stand out as some of Di Caprio’s best work, more often than not, these are comic moments. The highlight being the quaalude scene toward the end of the film, which combines great physical comedy and perfectly delivered voice over. It’s hard to make cerebral palsy funny, but they pull it off here.

Belfort is never played sympathetically, as he has numerous chances to do the right thing, but instead decides to continue his course of money, sex and drugs. Di Caprio, Scorcese and Terence Winter deserve credit for trying to make him interesting and charismatic as opposed to immediately likeable, as a result the film benefits from this.

The film is excessive, a hard eighteen, which had to be cut to make that rating. With a film this explicit, you have to ask if it’s justified and needed. While they could have done without some of the shots, it would have lessened the world and the characters, as we wouldn’t see them acting how they truly are, no matter how crazed and out of control they are. More out of control than the actions, is the language, which ranges from mildly offensive to machine gun like speed of four letter word insults. The line that demonstrates this is when one of the brokers sees an attractive woman and comments, “I’d let her give me AIDS”. I think that sums up the kind of language you should expect.

The film is three hours long, but unlike recent films that clock up that kind of run time, this one doesn’t feels its length. The final half hour slows down as the severity of the situation begins to tell on Belfort and the rest of the characters. But by then you are so engrossed and involved in these people that another hour would have flown past.

Scorcese and Winter here have combined to create a truly great film and possibly Scorcese’s best in the last decade. It takes a very serious subject and makes it different to what it would have been in  the hands of a lesser calibre of writer/director team. To put it into context, this film could easily form a loose kind of trilogy with Casino and Goodfellas, albeit with different enterpretations of the American dream and organized crime, with The Wolf of Wall Street using Wall Street as the criminals instead of mobsters.

Don’t be put off by the length or the apparent seriousness of the subject matter. Go and experience one of the funniest (albeit darkly comic) and best made films of the year.

Director: Martin Scorcese

Writer(s): Terence Winter (screenplay) and Jordan Belfort (book).

American Hustle

Sometimes we build up films, books or music in our heads before it gets released. Heaping more and more pressure on to whatever it is we are waiting for. Anticipation is not a bad thing most of the time, however, if it goes unchecked or is increased by outside influences, then it can lead to severe disappointments. Something that can make even a passable or good piece of art, look like a load of rubbish.

American Hustle loosely, and I mean loosely, tells the story of the Abscam scandal in the late seventies in America, in which a number of politicians were arrested in a sting operation by the FBI. That however, is more of a backdrop for what is, essentially a character piece. Our main characters are two con artists and an FBI agent looking to make a name for himself.

As it is a character piece, it‘s driven and interested more on the characters and performances than anything else and top of the list is Christian Bale. This is, to put it out there right now, one of Bale’s best performances ever, as Irving Rosenfeld the experienced con man who is forced into the FBI operation for reasons I won’t go into here.

Where other performances verge on parody or awards baiting, Bale keeps it understated, realising that with the already substantial amount of hair and make up he has on, that he too could become nothing more than a joke. Not only are his big scenes quite often the films strongest moments, he also manages to lift the smaller scenes, even when he may not have anything to say, with nothing more than a look.  This performance is the stand out reason for seeing this film.

With such a rich story and setting, it is a sad aspect of the film that the plot is pushed to the side. Yes, the performances are good, but they hardly drive the film forward. You could easily divide the films scenes up into two categories. Character and Plot quite easily. Despite the clear preference for character scenes, if is more often that not the more plot based scenes that are the best. Which makes it a shame that the ratio is heavily favoured the other way.

A quick note on the music, something that is often a strength of David O Russell’s films, he uses it to build the world and period, but also matches them perfectly to the scenes or sequences we are watching. The club scene between Adams and Cooper is made to feel even more intense and euphoric with the O Russell’s perfect choice of song. The deliberately cheesy early montage of Bale and Adams rise to prominence is a cheesy delight.

Some have argued that American Hustle is all style and no substance, that to me is an unfair and quite frankly inaccurate criticism to lay at this films feet. As it is a period piece, it will naturally attract comments on how it looks and if that attention to detail was at the expense of other parts of the film. With the characters it certainly wasn’t a detriment to them. But as mentioned, the lack of plot hurts the film and doesn’t leave you thinking about the film once the film has ended, which The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook did for me.

The easiest way for me to sum up this film is Scorsese light, it definitely takes inspiration from Casino and Goodfellas in particular, as far as films to have as an influence, these two are arguably the best to take ideas or visuals from.

Come awards time, I am sure we will see American Hustle dominate in all categories, but it will be acting categories where its greatest chance lies, in particular Christian Bale. Next to better-plotted films, such as Captain Phillips, it will be interesting to see how it fairs in the screenplay award, to see if the preference is character or plot.

By no means a bad film, more a victim of its own hype.