The Cast
Assembling an all-star cast is pretty commonplace for Scorsese. Anyone familiar with his masterful body of work knows that a number of his films have great ensemble casts, like his Academy Award winning film for Best Picture and Best Director, The Departed which stars Leo, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg. In The Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese has again teamed up with Leo as well as Matthew McConaughey, Academy Award winning actor Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights), and Academy Award nominee, Jonah Hill. He does serious movies too, folks. Remember Moneyball?
Babes On Boats
Need I say more? Probably not, but I will anyways. When babes and boats are used in the same sentence, you know that tiny, skimpy and oh-so-sexy bikinis are sure to follow. So picture this as you must – dozens, upon dozens of beautiful, youthfully aged women parading around on a huge boat or at a giant mansion with a ton of cash, alcohol and drugs being thrown about. It might not be everyone’s idea of a perfect life, but it’ll be ridiculously fun to watch and indulge in for a little while, no?
The Soundtrack
We all love Kanye, right? Okay, maybe we don’t all love Kanye but we definitely loved how epic his “Black Skinhead” track made The Wolf of Wall Street’s trailer. The trailer was arguably one of best of the year but the movie’s great music doesn’t stop with Kanye. The soundtrack to Scorsese’s three-hour masterpiece features great jazz and blues tunes from artists like Cannonball Adderly, Howlin’ Wolf and Bo Diddley and also features some pop by Billy Joel and The Lemonheads. The film’s music supervisor, Randall Poster has worked with Scorsese on The Aviator, Hugo, and Boardwalk Empire, the latter of which earned him a Grammy award. Groovy.
Award Season
The big boys of the award circuit are in the middle of finalizing their nominees for the year’s best films, actors and screenplays, and you can be sure that The Wolf of Wall Street will make (or at least should make) some serious splashes when it comes to potential hardware. With the Academy Awards pondering things over, The Golden Globes have already nominated Scorsese’s flick for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, and have also nominated Mr. DiCaprio for a second straight year in an acting category. This year, for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical.
Flying "Little People"
No, they don’t have wings or have strange magical powers that allow them to glide over New York. That would be ridiculous, especially for a Martin Scorsese film. Instead, there’s a big money sign, they get launched at the target and they stick. It’s their gift, apparently – to be thrown like a lawn dart. Midget exploitation is nothing new in cinema. Filmmakers have been using real-life Hobbits for years to garner exploitative laughter. But remember people, that this is a Martin Scorsese picture. He’ll be sure to present it in a classy manner. As classy as throwing a midget like a lawn dart gets, anyways.
NC-17 Rating
Okay, okay I lied. But only somewhat. Martin Scorsese’s newest picture has a solid R-rating, and according to filmratings.com, has “sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence.” Filmratings.com gave The Wolf of Wall Street this rating after Scorsese cut and edited numerous scenes because of all the T&A. Before he did, the film would have earned an NC-17 rating. What does this mean? It means this film is going to be bare-freaking-ass. I mean badass. Bad-freaking-ass.
3 Hours Long
Now, now I know what you’re thinking, “That’s stupid long. I can’t sit through that!” If this is indeed what you’re thinking, film critic, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine has news for you. “Yeah, like we don’t spend that much time every effing day exchanging banalities on digital media. This is Scorsese, people, delivering a cinematic landmark.” If my words aren’t enough to get you to see it, take it from the renown film critic. Plus, with Leo and Marty acting as producers, they were able to do whatever the eff they wanted. That means, no restrictions, no rules, no BS.
It’s Kind Of Like Goodfellas
Perhaps one of his greatest films ever, Scorsese’s Goodfellas draws a ton of parallels to The Wolf of Wall Street. Goodfellas is famous for its story of gangsters and the copious amounts of money they made. TWOWS is just a tiny bit different. The gangsters in Goodfellas were Italian mobsters who worked the streets and were kings of the underground, but in TWOWS, Jordan Belfort, a crook in his own right, gets into Wall Street and raises some hell. It’s gangsterism within legal confines. The stories eerily mirror one another and screams classic Scorsese, bringing him back to the crime drama he’s so perfectly defined.
The Book
“I partied like a rockstar. Lived liked a king.” With a badass tagline like that, it’s no wonder producer and star of the film, Leonardo DiCaprio decided to crush Brad Pitt in a bidding war for the movie rights. The Wolf of Wall Street was originally a book written by the real life Jordan Belfort, on his real life story about Wall Street. The slick and greedy Belfort (portrayed by DiCaprio) made thousands of dollars a minute by day, and spent it all on drugs and sex at night. With words like rockstar, king and sex being thrown around, are you still seriously wondering how Scorsese’s film will be anything short of epic?
One Of Scorcese's Last
If you’re a fan of Marty’s or just a film junkie in general, you owe it to yourself to see this picture as it may be one of the legend’s last. In an interview with Indiewire, Scorsese was quoted as saying “I have the desire to make many films, but as of now I’m 71 and there’s only a couple more left if I get to make them. I miss the time when I had the desire to experiment. I miss that time, but it’s done, it’s over.” We can only hope his giant passion for pictures leads him to a dozen more, but if it really is one of his last, can you afford not to see it?
