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Friday, March 28, 2014

BLU-RAY REVIEW The Wolf Of Wall Street
Big Screen Or Small, The Wolves Remain Within Us


Audience members in Martin Scorsese's epic comedy-drama "The Wolf Of Wall Street", now on Blu-Ray in the U.S. and Canada.  Paramount Pictures
       
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        FOLLOW                                            TWEET
Friday, March 28, 2014

"Sell me this pen," Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) says to members of a captive audience near the end of Martin Scorsese's epic, raucous "The Wolf Of Wall Street".  The Oscar-nominated film arrived on Blu-Ray in the U.S. and Canada earlier this week.  A few nervous souls attempt to meet Belfort's challenge.  This test is the final question Mr. Scorsese asks us: do we have what it takes?  Do we have the sales pitch and the confidence to go with it?  How would we sell something if we had to?

Mr. Scorsese's film is based on Mr. Belfort's memoir of his days of living hard and working fraudulently, victimizing thousands in "pump-and-dump" penny stock schemes while heading Long Island, New York broker firm Stratton Oakmont.  Filled with an excellent jazz and blues soundtrack, the three-hour film moves quickly on Blu-Ray in a sharp, crisp 1080p HD widescreen frame.  The Blu-Ray disc, which has a 17-minute extra called "The Wolf Pack", contains a separate DVD disc of the film, but not the "Wolf Pack" extra, which is a series of interviews with cast and crew.  A customary free streaming/digital HD copy available for download is included as well.

"The Wolf Of Wall Street" doesn't play nice with anyone's sensibilities, and is as tough a watch in some scenes on the small screen as it was on the big screen just three months ago.  (It was released theatrically in the U.S. on Christmas Day last year.)  Sex, drugs, money and lies dominate the New York City landscape in "Wolf", and while the relentless hedonism and debauchery may overwhelm or turn off some, the fervor and depth of Mr. Scorsese's typically aggressive camera and visceral visions energize a phenomenally well-edited film by Thelma Schoonmaker. 

Mr. DiCaprio does his best work on film as Jordan Belfort in a full-force physical display of comedy, chauvinism and cheekiness.  He's as savage as he is savvy and seductive.  We laugh and cringe at him, often at the same time.  Jonah Hill is a demented treat as Donnie Azoff, Stratton's number-two man, Belfort's enforcer pit-bull.  Both actors were Oscar-nominated in January for their work.  The all-star cast, which doesn't disappoint, features a memorable Matthew McConaughey as a mentor to Belfort.

"The Wolf Of Wall Street" is packed with drugs, drink and sex without glorifying any of it.  This makes sense, for these pleasure vices are shown through the eyes of a misogynist.  Some people believed Mr. Scorsese was endorsing negative treatment of women but a closer examination of the film, which I've seen five times in theaters alone, reveals cues and clues about the moral judgments and conflicts typically at play in Mr. Scorsese's work.  Every one in his 2013 film isn't an outright villain.  Exhibit A: FBI Agent Denham (Kyle Chandler), who doggedly pursues Belfort and his band of ne'er do wells.  Mr. DiCaprio and Mr. Chandler have a key scene halfway through, the film's most important.

Thought provoking, painful and hilarious, "The Wolf Of Wall Street" is easily the best film Martin Scorsese has directed since "GoodFellas".  It's an R-rated debauchery festival full of complex characters and situations not easily forgotten on Blu-Ray.


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