Despite all the bad press, Jack and I did enjoy this story of the real-life swindler Jordan Belfort and it's been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and Best Director for Martin Scorsese (last blogged in Hugo), which also earned him the same two Oscar nominations). Yup, it has a precedent-setting number of F-bombs and scenes of graphic debauchery, but that's what these kids in their twenties did when they became ridiculously rich in such a short time in the late 1980s and early '90s. Trivia: they used crushed B vitamins to stand in for the cocaine, which helped them act high. Leonardo DiCaprio (most recently in The Great Gatsby, nominated for this role) had been wanting to adapt Belfort's book for some time and he's one of the movie's producers. He puts everything he's got into this role of the arrogant reckless guy. Jonah Hill (he was in This Is the End after Moneyball) has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for this role, and I don't really see why, but he won't win this time either. With 134 actors credited and 119 uncredited I can only scratch the surface, but I will mention Margot Robbie (I did watch the now-canceled series Pan Am plus she had a tiny part in About Time) who is more, to paraphrase Roger Ebert, than her Wonderbra as Naomi. Rob Reiner (better known as a director, he won two Emmys and was nominated for three as well as five Golden Globes for his work in 187 episodes of All in the Family from 1971-78 as well as 63 other credits; this is his first feature acting gig in ten years) and an unrecognizable Christine Ebersole (a whole bunch of TV after her 20 episodes of Saturday Night Live, including 11 of Royal Pains) play Belfort's concerned parents, Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) is a broker who inspires Belfort and has a funny chest-beating bit that is the actor's own, Jean Dujardin (The Artist) is droll as a Swiss banker, and Joanna Lumley (best known to me for the British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous from 1992-2012) is regal and full of surprises as Naomi's Aunt Emma. Spike Jonze (director of Her) has an uncredited cameo as they guy who explains penny stocks to Jordan.
The other controversy about this movie is that the real Jordan Belfort, who has a cameo towards the end as a talk show host introducing DiCaprio's Belfort, is out of jail after 22 months and his victims have not been paid restitution. I've read many articles (including one, two, three, four) about this guy and it does make me feel bad. I can only hope, although Belfort wrote the book for which Terence Winter (25 episodes of The Sopranos and 48 of Boardwalk Empire) has been nominated for adapting, that the crook won't get royalties. He's not only not in jail, he lives steps from the sand in Hermosa Beach, near Los Angeles, and works as a motivational speaker. I guess there is a sucker born every minute if people pay this guy.
No composer is credited but 54 songs are listed on imdb, and you can listen to a 35-song playlist on youtube. The songs are great.
This isn't a documentary. It isn't an instructional video. It's supposed to be a comedy. And we did laugh, sometimes at jokes, sometimes at inappropriateness. Jack didn't take one single nap in its 2 hours and 59 minutes, which is also unusual. Rottentomatoes critics come in at 75% and audiences at 81. This is definitely not for everyone, but we had a good time.
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