wall street on an endless hallucinogenic trip

finally, leonardo dicaprio found the material that suits his oftentimes hyperbolic moves, moods and mannerisms on the big screen. in his fifth collaboration with martin scorsese -- one of the greatest living directors in hollywood (the others are the genius francis ford coppola, the dreamer christopher nolan and the non-compromising richard linklater ) -- wolf of wall street succeeded in awakening and heating up leonardo's sleeping and frozen acting chops.

leonardo pretty much keeps you hypnotized for three hours or more. a triumph, indeed, for someone who has been giving us nothing but mediocre performances in the past several years.

the story of an ambitious wall street trader, broker and then one of its richest and most successful market makers, leonardo embodies and owns the film from start to finish, particularly his funny scenes with jonah hill and even with kyle chandler. i have mentioned it several times (as if! feeling important) that leonardo should find a light material like catch me if you can because that's where he is really good at.

of course he used to be a good dramatic actor (his turn in what's eating gilbert grape remains one of his best to date), but it is in comedy that leonardo does his best work. or maybe he is just too obsessed with winning the academy's votes for best actor that his performance in his dramatic, dark, edgy movies like revolutionary road, gangs of new york, the aviator, black diamonds, have been hurt.

in his post-titanic movies, leonardo is trying so hard to deliver his best, especially in baz luhrmann's over-the-top remake of the great gatsby, that he almost forgot the basic of a good performance -- just have fun and relax. look at meryl streep's effortless portrayals of different characters like british prime minister margaret thatcher in the iron lady or the ruthless vogue editor in the devil wears prada that landed her in oscar's honor roll almost every year.

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back to leonardo, the biggest star and actor in the world.

his scenes with jonah hill are all hilarious. my favourites are the scenes where they are taking those pills that are supposed to give them the best high ever. i love those scense -- from leonardo's phone conversation with his lawyer at the country club where he can no longer pronounce his words well because the drugs have taken their effects on him, to his efforts to reach his car by crawling on the floor and falling on the stairs, to the tug-of-war with the telephone with jonah hill at his kitchen, and eventually saving his life. priceless!

leonardo's scene with the charming kyle chandler, playing an fbi agent running after him and his team of wall street crooks, at his humungous yacht where he tries to bribe him is also funny.

i also laughed hard at those scenes where he is showing his different faces in various stages of being high on drugs, as well as the ones where he is describing prostitutes as blue chips, penny stocks, etc.

indeed, leonardo found his perfect stride in this movie, as well as a flawless chemistry with most of his co-actors notably jonah hill, kyle chandler (you remember him, don't you, in that old teevee series where he played a lovable and handsome cop who got his news a day before newspapers came out through a mysterious cat, a preview of the online news) and that blond australian actress playing his second wife.

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this is by far leonaro's best turn since revolutionary road, a poignant movie about a sub-urban couple who are both bored with their lives that reunited him with his titanic leading lady kate winslet.

also, this is by far scorsese's best since the age of innocence (one of my favourite movies), albeit a big departure from his previous dramatic (and some action) outputs such as gangs of new york (his first time to direct leonardo. the movie just managed to highlight leonardo's deficiencies as an actor, and british thespian daniel day-lewis easily eclipsed him).

as i wrote at the start of this post, this is the fifth time that scorsese directed his muse leonardo. after gangs of new york, they also collaborated in the aviator, the departed and shutter island. while these movies are all commercial successes, they failed to showcase lenardo's acting ability. in fact, they just managed to show the opposite, his limitations as an actor, as he gave the same tired, almost formulaic performances in these movies.

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much has been said about the movie's excesses. the sexism (treating women as mere sex objects. there are plenty of women shown naked in this movie, but only one of the actors dare to appear naked several times. yes you guess it right, leonardo bravely pranced nude in several scenes, even allowing a close-up shot of his butt in one hilarious scene),  political incorrectness (making fun of "short" people and using them as darts during parties at leonardo's office), drug use, etc. etc.

but i must say that those themes only help martin scorsese stress his points -- that obsession about money leads to a lot more sins and crimes. how's that for a moral lesson?!

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the soundtrack is also divine. i love that scene where the fbi swoops down into leonardo's office to arrest the officers and staff while the song mrs. robinson by lemonheads (doing a cover of the simon & garunkel's beloved ode to youth and love) is playing loudly. i swear, after that scene, i will no longer associate mrs. robinson with the seductive ann bancroft and the lovelorn young dustin hoffman in the graduate.

(please click here to listen to wolf of wall street's awesome soundtrack)

that scene reminds me of francis ford coppola's brilliant use of wagner's ride of the valkyries as a background to that pivotal scene in apocalypse now where the american soldiers lead by the cool, young and sexy dennis hopper invaded and gunned down an entire village of vietnamese farmers.

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some may find the movie tiring after an hour of endless sex, wild parties, orgies, drugs, fast cars, tacky ninety's fashion, naked women with shaved bushes, grown up men acting like high school boys who cannot control their raging hormones, but i didn't.

frankly, i didn't even notice how long the movie is. it's like being in an all-night party with plenty of booze, beautiful people, loud music and yes, drugs to go around. time just flies.

truth to tell, after three hours and as the credits roll, i still find myself still wanting for more like an insatiable drug addict.


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aside from leonardo and jonah, the best performance in the film is delivered by matthew mcconaughey, playing a gordon gekkoish (michael douglas in the oliver stone directed movie wall street) mark hanna, leonardo's mentor. i couldn't stop laughing at the scene where he and leonardo are having a dinner. i won't elaborate on it. you just have to watch the movie.

matthew's mark is the perfect complement for gordon's controlling, manipulative and cunning wall street lion in the wall street movie. in fact, mark is gordon on a perennial acid trip. while his scenes in the movie are brief, matthew's (unrecognizable as he lost a lot of weight. probably he was still shooting dallas buyers club where he played an aids sufferer when he agreed to do a cameo here) character and performance will haunt you and stay with you until the movie ends.

matthew has indeed metamorphosed into a fine actor. his mark provides the template for leonardo's overly ambitious, party loving, drug addicted, women chasing, power hungry wall street titan character.

the movie, too, makes stone's wall street (shown in the eighty's) drama look like it's a stuff made from kindergarten. it's wise that instead of the drama behind the sordid lives of leonardo and company, martin instead shifts the focus to their often times hilarious lives as they make obscene amounts of money, make obscene sex and consume obscene amounts of drugs on the way to hell.


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watch it and get high. wolf of wall street is wall street on an endless hallucinogenic trip!

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here's the trailer if you care.

(i don't own the photos above. they were taken from web sites. no copyright infringements intended.)