"I fucked her brains out... for eleven seconds". Jordan Belfort
☆☆☆☆☆ Masterpiece
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) is an operatic ode to addiction.
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey and Margot Robbie among many others.
Scorsese's grand opera on addiction. Martin idolized Federico Fellini and this picture and Hugo come closest to Fellini's merging of reality and fantasy. The story is real, but Scorsese imbues the film with a dark, slapstick comedic style which gives the film a Felliniesque fantasy quality. The comedic direction helps the viewer sympathize with the villain and grounds the film in fantasy. The Fellini quality is a masterful stroke of directorial genius.
The direction, camera, writing and acting are all superb and give the picture an epic quality. The dialogue by Terence Winter is as Oscar worthy as Aaron Sorkin's dialogue in The Social Network (2010). I found myself constantly repeating the dialogue throughout the film in much the same way as I did with The Social Network. I would not be surprised if Winter takes home an Oscar for writing.
The magic that holds the viewer spellbound is the mesmerizing comedic performances by Leonardo, Jonah and Matthew. Each enters their character from a different path. Leonardo does it by his physicality, which is slapstick at times. Jonah uses character props such as eye glasses, clothing to immerse himself in the role. Matthew grounds his character with his own acting warm up mantra. I've seen other actors use such warmup mantras in the past and they always spook me. Matthew was frightening to watch as he disappeared into his mantra warmup. I once saw an actor imitate a chicken to warm up backstage before a show. The trick to acting is letting go or freeing yourself so that the character can inhabit and inform you. If chest pounding or chicken walking warm you up and let you go to become your character so be it. Just remember to take a few weeks after the performance to get the character out of you completely or suffer mentally and physically permanently.
In the scene below watch Leonardo's comic timing. You are either born with comic timing or you are not. DiCaprio is a born comic actor. Leonardo has a later Quaalude induced paralysis scene that The Three Stooges would be proud of.
Trivia - Matthew McConaughey's chest beating and humming in a scene with Leonardo is actually a warming up ritual that he performs before acting. Leonardo DiCaprio encouraged Matthew to use it their scene.
Note - If you would like to view The Wolf of Wall Street to rent or buy please click on the link below the comments. It is sponsored by Google, so it is the safest and most secure way to get a copy for your film library.
No comments:
Post a Comment