On paper, the story of Jordan Belfort seems tailor-made for him - it is a criminal’s survivor story, with Wall Street as the Cosa Nostra of our times - but this isn’t GoodFellas with stocks and shares it is a film with one eye on us, the audience. It’s big but not Gangs-Of-New-York epic, and it finally seems as though Scorsese is once again interrogating the material, finding the substance of the piece. With The Wolf Of Wall Street, the director’s early energy comes flooding back. That the comedy is so effortless is another striking thing about Scorsese’s 23rd feature, since it is his first film since 1999’s Bringing Out The Dead - also rich in black humour - that doesn’t seem to be made to an Academy agenda. But the oddest thing of all about The Wolf Of Wall Street is also the most unusual for a Scorsese film: it is incredibly, incredibly funny. ![]() Though it starts with a dash of the usual visual pyrotechnics, the tone is much straighter than we’ve come to expect, with longer, more intimate scenes and a much greater emphasis on script. ![]() ![]() It arrives as Casino did with a lot of fanfare, but doesn’t quite deliver what many of us were expecting, and for some, it’s a film that might take a little bit of getting used to. The Wolf Of Wall Street is the first Martin Scorsese film in a good while that feels as though, in a few years' time, it will join Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and GoodFellas in the canon.
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