This Wolf Still Has Teeth

The Data Points:

• Year Released: 2013

• Runtime: 180 Minutes

• Directed: Martin Scorsese

• Written: Terence Winter

• Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConnaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal

• Oscars:

  • Won: None.

  • Nominated: Best Picture, Best Actor (DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Hill), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay

• IMDb Plot Summary: Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stockbroker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.

Scorsese and the Dark Side. Before this movie hit theaters, the controversy around its subject matter was there to meet it, and still follows the film to this day. It still holds the record for most utterances of “f***” in a major theatrical release (569 according to most sources), the characters frequently abuse drugs, and the film features more nudity than some soft-core porn (according to my sources). Our “heroes” treat women with a bracing level of misogyny and are hollow vessels made to consume as much poison and make as much money as possible, and they never attempt any redemptive change but only happen to get caught. However, with a few notable blunt digressions and one harrowing scene of attempted child kidnapping, the film embraces a comedic sensibility and is probably its filmmaker’s downright funniest. Much of the controversy in the film’s reception asked the question if laughing at these repugnant people’s abhorrent behavior is “allowed” or a weakness of the film; to me, that’s a shallow response that ignores the achievement of the film in letting you do so. What each viewer is left with is a mirror onto their own morality, asking each of them to judge what lines within themselves they’ve crossed (if any) by submerging them in an entertaining world where dignity isn’t just absent, but actively being short sold. Naturally, it’s a perfect fit among Scorsese’s best achievements.

By 2013, Scorsese had been courting controversy for the stories he told for the better part of 40 years, but he’s no shallow provocateur. With Taxi Driver, he invited audiences into the unstable mind of an insomniac and likely racist Vietnam veteran who is repulsed by late 70’s New York and takes drastic and violent steps to do something about it. With Raging Bull, he asked audiences to empathize with a boxer whose fall into a cycle of domestic abuse and alcoholism is painted as a tragic side effect of his sexual jealousy, possessiveness, and a whole litany of classically toxic masculine tendencies. And with GoodFellas and Casino, he entertained audiences with stories of downright monsters through more empathetic exercises; it’s in our nature to cheer for our protagonists, no matter who they are. Scorsese’s unique ability to get his audiences to temporarily invest in awful people doesn’t mean he thinks they’re good or right.

With Wolf, Scorsese trades in his crews of nicknamed mafia capos for white-collar investment bankers, but this is still a crime story that he is bringing his full suite of technical capabilities and experimentation to tell. There’s voice-over, cutaways, freeze-frames, slow-motion, and a feverish pace (courtesy of legendary editor Thelma Schoonmaker) across the entirety of the film’s runtime a la Casino or GoodFellas. He’s also experimenting with a new bag of tricks including visual effects and digital photography which combines with a fresh tonality and a new setting to produce a different type of Scorsese product, but one that nonetheless bears its auteur’s hallmarks. Chief among these is his invitation to take a prowl on the dark side, catch a high, and then experience a violent comedown.

Leo, Margot, and The Gang. If you’ve been living under a rock for the last 6 months, I’ve got news for you: Margot Robbie stars in Barbie and that movie has smashed box office records like it’s nobody’s business. Though she had starred in the single season of Pan Am in 2011 (inspired in part, I imagine, by the delightful Leonardo DiCaprio-starring Catch Me If You Can) this movie was a debut to be remembered that has turned into one of Hollywood’s most vital careers. What’s easy to lose in all of that – or the conversation/controversy over her nude appearances in the film – is just how great of a performance this is. She’s the perfect counterpart to Leo, going as loud and big as he can, quiet when necessary, and occasionally heartbreaking. It’s Leo as the big bad wolf, however, who is the real story here. I find this to be his best performance, in no small part because of how detestable he allows himself to be while maintaining his innate charm (unlike the truly repugnant Calvin Candie), perfectly matching what I mentioned Scorsese was up to with a trip into the mind of a scoundrel. His energy matches the film’s, meaning that he wheels out some of the most over-the-top comic madness the likes of which are rarely seen among our serious leading men, especially this one. I genuinely think it’s his best work to date, and I can’t wait to see what he does next in Killers of the Flower Moon.

Surrounding our two leads is a full bundle of complementary assets (I’m trying) with each supporting actor making a uniquely lasting impression to help carry this film’s runtime. Jonah Hill receives a high level of billing and creates one of the most detestably debased and grotesque characters that’s not also a serial killer you’ll ever see and is also utterly hilarious. The most important scene in the movie, where Scorsese and screenwriter Terence Winter lay bare the ethos of the wolf, doesn’t just feature Matthew McConnaughey, it belongs to him. He is a coked-out faux intellectual pirate who is a hero to the fledgling Belfort and awakens the greedy alter ego that would grow to consume him. I don’t think this movie takes a side on if monsters are born or made, but Scorsese goes out of his way to show us how he got seduced into a lifestyle based on “yes” alone.

Comedy and Satire. For most of its intentionally bloated runtime, this movie is a riotous comedy about the pursuit of excess at the cost of one’s soul, but the final 20 minutes or so (plus a few quick inserts including an anecdote of an employee’s suicide) reveal this film to be perhaps the most knowing and portending American satire of the 21st Century. To clarify the difference, comedy operates loudly and obviously, whereas successful satire plays near-subconsciously and reveals the audience to be the butt of a cosmically dark joke. For a recent example of this working well, see Succession which has excellent comedic moments, but evolved into a darkly dramatic and tragic story that is ultimately a satire revealing the fact that our culture can be quite vacuous and serves to make the rich richer and that all of us are just the collateral damage of the ego-fueled games that the most elite play. In Wolf, the bill eventually comes due for Jordan, but in his own words, “rich people don’t go to real jail.” And in the film’s final scene, he’s got a contemporary new look and is propped up by the corporate self-belief industry teaching regular schmucks how to “sell him this pen”, a trick the movie teaches us early on is only to create a need the buyer doesn’t have. The film’s final shot stays with me – it’s not of Belfort, but the crowd of Joe Schmoe wannabes. It mirrors earlier shots of Jordan’s “telephone terrorists” following one of his pump-up speeches, but where those were about as fast as a camera could move to capture the energy of a coked-out mind, it’s now slower to accommodate Jordan’s forced sobriety. The effect is the same: the wolf is once again leading his flock, but these sheep look an awful lot like us.

The Wolf Among Us. This film has lasted for me not just because of the caliber of filmmaker, the cast, or the technical accomplishments, but also because of how much it had to say about America after its release. In 2013, we were comfortable laughing at this fugazi-slinging huckster from Queens; in 2016, one found his way into the White House. Though he faces a similar slew of legal troubles, has evaded punishment and continues to hold the sheep in his thrall – even if he is found guilty, rich people don’t go to prison like everyone else. In terms of Hollywood, 2013 feels like a far more innocent time for the business; Netflix had just started producing its own content on its streaming platform (a word we were just beginning to understand), but the Silicon Valley incursion into cinema wasn’t really upon us in a way we could understand. However, the following 10 years would go to show that stockholder value would drive the interests not just of the tech companies inserting themselves, but also of the legacy studios and every company that launched its own streaming service. Just last week, the CFO of Warner Bros. hinted that there might be fewer titles available because only a small number drive engagement – in other words, they’ll sell or scrap their properties for money, irrespective of their artistic merit, which is much easier when it’s all “content”.

If they’re masterpieces, then they’re “real”, and if they’re “real”, you can’t succeed in your mission: to move money from their pocket to yours.