I used to go to Scorsese films with unrealistically high expectations, then with no expectations, then I avoided a couple, and now I'm not even sure what I'm approaching this one with, except I will see it, so I've at least reversed course. But I don't know if I'm capable of seeing a film of his for what it is anymore--lots of clutter in there.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 11 December 2013 00:10 (ten years ago) link
I'll put it this way. Do you like Goodfellas? You might want to just watch Goodfellas. Take it from someone who doesn't even like Goodfellas.
― Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 00:18 (ten years ago) link
Goodfellas was during my unreasonably-high-expectations phase--I remember my first response, writing to a friend at the time, was to dwell on the couple of things that bothered me. (Now, of course, very typical, love it--though I wore it out.) Soon after, Cape Fear helped pave the way for the next phase in a big way.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 11 December 2013 00:28 (ten years ago) link
this movie is kind of a mess but i loved it nonetheless. it's not as amazing as goodfellas (what is???) but it's tremendo.
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 01:21 (ten years ago) link
Even golden-era Scorsese never cared about continuity... tons of mismatched shots all over the place.
Yeah, he really regrets winning an Oscar.
Now that you mention it, I'm sure I overheard some gossip that for that film, HE DID!
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 18:57 (ten years ago) link
Goodfellas is lousy with continuity errors.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 19:01 (ten years ago) link
So this was pretty much a giant waste of time.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 11 December 2013 19:55 (ten years ago) link
High five!!
― Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 19:57 (ten years ago) link
The best thing I can say about it is that all involved (all of the men, anyway) clearly had a blast making it.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 11 December 2013 20:34 (ten years ago) link
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, December 11, 2013 1:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
there's been rumblings of this for a bit, yeah. Who knows how true they are.
― papa smango (fadanuf4erybody), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 20:36 (ten years ago) link
tell me more
― Number None, Wednesday, 11 December 2013 20:38 (ten years ago) link
i kinda felt like the oscar win for scorsese was orchestrated in such a way that it came off as condescending (kinda like bigelow's win.)
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 20:40 (ten years ago) link
some funny semi-flaming over this on my FB
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 20:42 (ten years ago) link
I find the trailer at the top of this thread exquisitely charmless and unfunny. It gives me the same feeling I always got from watching John Lithgow and 3rd Rock From the Sun, like hey we're all just letting it all hang out and having a blast, and me I wanna put my foot through the screen.
― I was a teenage oenophile (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 21:11 (ten years ago) link
otm, but an al leong endorsement bears more weight than a trailer
― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 21:20 (ten years ago) link
part of me feels this movie has as much in common with a jody hill movie as a scorsese/"wall street"/"boiler room" type movie in some ways
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, 11 December 2013 21:23 (ten years ago) link
i believe in my boy al leong
― Hungry4Ass, Wednesday, 11 December 2013 21:24 (ten years ago) link
Tossing in some chips for fellow azn al leong as well
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 11 December 2013 21:25 (ten years ago) link
It says something that, barely half a day after watching it, the only bits that stand out in my brain involve Jon Bernthal and Kyle Chandler, who get about 20 minutes' screentime between them.
― Simon H., Thursday, 12 December 2013 06:30 (ten years ago) link
Chandler's scene on the yacht is the best in the movie.
― Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Thursday, 12 December 2013 14:02 (ten years ago) link
Chandler was super in The Spectacular Now. This guy needs a better press agent.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 12 December 2013 14:03 (ten years ago) link
Glenn Kenny just listed this as his 3rd-fave of the year. I'll be curious to read his (eventual) take.
― Simon H., Thursday, 12 December 2013 14:46 (ten years ago) link
Richard Brody put it at #1, which is really the only place on a top 10 list it makes sense to slot it; it's an all-in kind of movie.
― Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Thursday, 12 December 2013 14:55 (ten years ago) link
Are you two related
― 乒乓, Thursday, 12 December 2013 14:56 (ten years ago) link
“I’m very happy with this. Leo DiCaprio, we kind of see things the same way. We have similar sensibilities and we want to make a certain kind of statement, hence the projects we choose. I chose Gangs of New York and Shutter Island. He wanted to do The Aviator. I chose The Departed. He wanted to do this new film.”
“That’s one of the reasons we made The Wolf of Wall Street, not to show the greed, but to be in the greed, to be part of it, part of the exaltation of it, part of the excitement of it and part of the destruction it causes.”
“After the war, I remember America in the 1950s, yes it was more innocent, more quote/ unquote repressed, no doubt, culturally, to a certain extent. I don’t remember, honestly, and we weren’t taught a great deal in certain schools, in certain specific things about American history, but I don’t remember them saying that the country was formed only so that everybody could get rich, I just don’t believe it. That feels, for me right now, that is what it feels like.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/martin-scorsese-in-conversation-guilt-trips-of-the-great-director-9000873.html
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 December 2013 20:32 (ten years ago) link
Well, "flatulent black comedy" sounds better than Jesse & Celine.
http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-martin-scorseses-the-wolf-of-wall-street
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 December 2013 16:02 (ten years ago) link
My holiday gift to myself is going to be avoiding the comments on that one.
― Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Tuesday, 17 December 2013 16:25 (ten years ago) link
Make every day a holiday!
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 December 2013 16:26 (ten years ago) link
Calum has pretty much the same read on it, but was far less mixed ...
http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/theatrical-reviews/the-wolf-of-wall-street-25600
― Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Tuesday, 17 December 2013 16:27 (ten years ago) link
floozie from The Apartment reads the riot act to Marty & Leo
http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/12/holiday-vs-scorsese/
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Monday, 23 December 2013 18:56 (ten years ago) link
according to Rene Rodriguez it's clear what side of the class war Marty's on:
The director even lands his closing shot, something he hasn’t always done well, leaving no doubt how he feels about Jordan, abandoning him in a perpetual hell of his own making. The Wolf of Wall Street isn’t a celebration of bad behavior: It’s a condemnation. Scorsese just allows you to share in the fun young millionaires can afford to have and lets you get drunk with them. Eventually, though, the party must end, as they always do, and most will leave the theater exhilarated and relieved at being part of the 99 percent.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 December 2013 21:18 (ten years ago) link
The director even lands his closing shot,something he hasn’t always done well,
what did she not like the rat
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 23 December 2013 21:25 (ten years ago) link
exhilarated and relieved at being part of the 99 percent.
phew!
― From the Album No Baby for You! (Matt P), Monday, 23 December 2013 21:37 (ten years ago) link
99% of film critics are completely useless
― From the Album No Baby for You! (Matt P), Monday, 23 December 2013 21:38 (ten years ago) link
all art is quite useless
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 December 2013 21:41 (ten years ago) link
art is totally useful, not so sure about art criticism
― From the Album No Baby for You! (Matt P), Monday, 23 December 2013 21:42 (ten years ago) link
The scene before the final scene is much more pointed (and avoids implicating the audience in the good-bad times ... which maybe was what Scorsese was trying to do in the first place).
― Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Monday, 23 December 2013 21:47 (ten years ago) link
http://www.film.com/movies/the-wolf-of-wall-street-morals
That's been Scorsese's weakness as a director, no? He's aware of The Audience as a shadowy thing, out there, and he's rarely sure about implicating them.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 December 2013 21:48 (ten years ago) link
doesn't Pesci fire a gun at the audience at the end of GoodFellas? (presumably it's Liotta's dream/vision, but still)
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Monday, 23 December 2013 22:18 (ten years ago) link
Pesci's dead well before the end of Goodfellas...?
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 23 December 2013 22:35 (ten years ago) link
It's a vision, yeah
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 December 2013 22:35 (ten years ago) link
I don't even remember what the last shot of this movie is, and I'd like to think I'm usually pretty good at remembering those.
― Simon H., Monday, 23 December 2013 22:38 (ten years ago) link
It was kinda the same as the last shot of A Touch of Sin.
― Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Monday, 23 December 2013 22:46 (ten years ago) link
I never took that final Pesci shot as a dream or vision of Liotta's, just a device thrown in there by Scorsese--a middle-finger representing the attitudes of all those guys, meant to sync up with the Sid Vicious song.
Is Frank Vincent anywhere in The Wolf of Wall Street? Chuck Low? I can see Chuck Low as some low-level brokerage guy hanging on by his fingernails.
― clemenza, Monday, 23 December 2013 23:22 (ten years ago) link
Frank Vincent is not in this, will you settle for Fran Lebowitz?
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 04:05 (ten years ago) link
There's a Frank Vincent-related joke I want to make, but I can't make it because she's a woman. My internal censor has come through (it doesn't always).
― clemenza, Tuesday, 24 December 2013 04:18 (ten years ago) link
As picked up by TheWrap, 75-year-old actress Hope Holiday posted to her Facebook page that Scorsese was heckled by an unnamed screenwriter following a weekend screening of "The Wolf of Wall Street" for Academy Awards voters.
last night was torture at the Academy--"The Wolf Of Wall Street"---three hours of torture--same disgusting crap over and over again---after the film they had a discussion which a lot of us did not stay for--the elevator doors opened and Leonardo D. Martin S. and a few others got out then a screen writer ran over to them and started screaming--shame on you --disgusting--
In the comments section of her Facebook post, Holiday, who starred for Billy Wilder in "The Apartment" and "Irma la Douce," revealed that she also admonished the director, but then removed herself from the situation before a fight broke out. ("I ran down the stairs.")
christ this movie owns
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 07:29 (ten years ago) link
nobody that old runs anywher
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 17:43 (ten years ago) link
it was more of a power walk
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 19:04 (ten years ago) link