The 86th Academy Awards Winners
An Oscar is undoubtedly the biggest honor any filmmaker could receive for their hard work in creating a cinematic work. While I may hear amongst many of the people in my life just how much they don't care about the evening's victors, I treat my viewing of the Academy Awards almost like the average American treats the Super Bowl. Growing up in an extremely small town, a lot of the nominated films weren't accessible to me and my predictions really reflected my sheltered viewings. Now that I'm in actual civilization, I've been able to catch a lot of the films, and I must say that I have become quite a professional at guessing who will be taking home the big prize of the evening. Last Friday I wrote a post on my predictions for the major categories of the evening, and I am proud to say I was pretty much eight for eight with my guesses. Perhaps I should say 7.5 for reasons of my Best Picture award, but I highly doubt anyone cares too much about that. With that said, here are this year's winners...
The 86th Academy Awards Winners Predictions
The early months of any year are full of awards and recognitions for all of those filmmakers who worked hard in the previous year to produce a form of entertainment that will have the capability to transcend the decades. While a variety of these award nights seem to take precedence throughout these first few weeks of the year, they all seem to merely be leading up to the largest of filmmaking honor ceremonies: The Academy Awards. The night on which the golden Oscar is distributed seems to always be the hype, and these smaller ceremonies just add to the predictions that film fanatics everywhere are making for the late winter celebration. 2013 brought a lot of excitement for filmgoers around the world, and this Sunday could be the test of whether a viewer's favorite film executed just the right amount of excellence for the Academy to spread cheer. So, without further blabber on my part, here is what I think will be receiving each honor this weekend.
[RH Review] The Wolf of Wall Street
The Wolf of Wall Street is the fifth collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. With every subsequent film made together, the two have grown increasingly comfortable with one another with DiCaprio becoming Scorsese's contemporary muse akin to his previous collaborations with Robert De Niro. However, it's with The Wolf of Wall Street that the two have achieved a heightened level of comfort and accomplishment that has been building up since the duo's first film, The Gangs of New York.
To call The Wolf of Wall Street the two's best film is an easy statement to make. To call it Scorsese's best film, however, is a sentiment that carries almost five decades' and more than 20 films' worth of accolades, awards, and accomplishments. Yet, here I am right now telling you with a bold face: The Wolf of Wall Street is Martin Scorsese's best film to date.
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The Wolf of Wall Street
Director: Martin Scorsese
Rating: R
Release Date: December 25, 2013
The Wolf of Wall Street is an adaptation of Jordan Belfort's memoir of the same name. During the late '80s and early '90s, Belfort and his partner Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) ran a brokerage firm, Stratton Oakmont, that took Wall Street by storm. Over years, the firm grew exponentially, bringing in riches for everybody in the company. Of course, their practices were less than legal, but when money talks, you listen, right? It all comes to a head when a federal agent begins to investigate the company following an expose on Belfort in Forbes.
This is the bare-bones summary of the film's narrative. However, like any great film (let alone a Scorsese-directed one), there's so much more to it, and to delve deeper would honestly spoil the experience for all of you reading this. Instead of digging deeper into the narrative, let me expound on why this is both Scorsese's best film and DiCaprio's best role to date. It's twisted, manic, eye-opening, and everything you may ever want in cinema.
One of the most primary and prominent themes carried through Scorsese's filmography is his analysis of machismo and masculinity, and The Wolf of Wall Street may be the most eye-opening of his films in this regard. While the film carries a dark comedy tone through its entirety, it's through this warped lens of humor. Belfort's story is one full of extravagance, and Scorsese exploits and perhaps even exaggerates this all to a grandiose scale. Everything from hills of cocaine snorted from a hooker's butt crack to awkward S&M scenes to midget tossing is in The Wolf of Wall Street. Take the most ridiculous scene from every late-'90s/early-'00s rap video, mix them together, and you have a framework for The Wolf of Wall Street's abundance.
Yet, it all fits together and makes sense. The Wolf of Wall Street is so much more than a memoir adaptation; it's more than just an analysis of masculinity in the face of young money. Much like Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, which itself was a film embodiment of the "spring break experience," Scorsese's latest opus is the embodiment of nihilistic hedonism, not just in narrative terms, but in the way Scorsese's cast has never previously explored, which alone serves as the film's highest point.
DiCaprio and Hill serve as the film's nucleus, and the chemistry between the two is amazing. Drop any preconceptions you may have about Hill as an actor - Hill's time to truly shine has finally arrived, and it's through Scorsese's masterful direction that Hill can finally shed his past as a one-note funny man. Sure, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Moneyball, but most crowds will still remember him from Superbad. Given some time, The Wolf of Wall Street will prove to be the benchmark for his career thus far. Hill's Donnie Azoff is still essentially the same character he's played for years (i.e. Jewish comedic foil), but he takes the character to new heights through a mixture of his comedy past and Scorsese's ability to simultaneously reign him in and let him go.
The same thing can be said about DiCaprio's performance, albeit at a larger scale. Simply put, you haven't seen a Leonardo DiCaprio role like this. Keeping in line with the film's theme of nihilistic hedonism, DiCaprio lets loose in a way I have never seen from him; it's like he completely sheds who he once was and becomes Belfort. This comes off as a film cliche about actors losing themselves in their roles, but DiCaprio's transformation is so brilliant and near-perfect. DiCaprio's Belfort is manic, self-serving, nihilistic, sexist, but at the same time, he's caring, protective, and giving. It's this balance of portraying a lovable drug addict, a caring sexual deviant, a money-obsessed Robin Hood, a by-the-books walking contradiction that sets this performance above all of the rest.
The Wolf of Wall Street is full of risks (and rewards), and it's the comfortability between Scorsese and DiCaprio that allows the film to even indulge in such risks (further pushing along the theme of hedonism). There's one particular sequence towards the end of the second act where you can just tell Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Hill were just feeding off of one another's energy. I don't want to spoil it, but you'll know it when you see it, and you'll leave the scene never looking at old Popeye cartoons the same way again.
The majority of the supporting cast is full of archetypes that, for better or worse, fulfill these roles as they were needed, but don't stick out beyond that initial need. For instance, Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) is the hard-nosed federal agent, Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead) is the badass enforcer, Brian Sacca is the mousy junior partner, etc. In a very minor, yet important role, Matthew McConaughey sets the stage for the film early on, acting as Belfort's mentor.
As you may remember, The Wolf of Wall Street faced some editing problems a few months ago, pushing its original November date to Christmas. It clocks in at almost three hours (2 hours, 59 minutes to be exact), but you don't feel its longevity throughout the film. Instead, you're carried through an abundantly entertaining film that keeps the energy high from start to finish. With that said, some fat could have been trimmed, especially when the film slightly hurtles to a conclusion in the last 30 minutes or so.
The Wolf of Wall Street carries everything you love from Martin Scorsese (modern crime, analysis of masculinity, overabundance of profanity, the "American Dream,"etc.), but with a focus on exploring the comedy genre. It's over the top, but not cheesy; grandiose, but refined. The Wolf of Wall Street is overindulgent in its riches, its drugs, its sex, and it's everything you never knew you wanted in a film. If, heaven forbid, this is the final film between DiCaprio and Scorsese, know that they're going out on top.
The Wolf of Wall Street was almost rated NC-17 due to too much sex
The trailers for The Wolf of Wall Street have been full of drugs, money, and ladies, usually the making of a great film, right? In a year where sex has been more openly embraced in cinema (I'm looking at you, Nymphomaniac and Blue is the Warmest Color), the MPAA still holds final say in what can and can't be featured in a film. There are certain factors that separate an R-rated film from an NC-17, such as the amount of boobs, blood, swears, et al. While an NC-17 rating nowadays isn't much of a death knell as it used to be in years past thanks to the emergence of VOD and legal, alternative sources, it's still not a rating a mainstream studio like Paramount Pictures or Universal Pictures would want due to major theater chains' refusal to carry films rated rated higher than an R.
The Wolf of Wall Street, the next film to come from the brilliant pairing of director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, faced some editing mishaps earlier this year when it faced the potential of missing Oscars consideration due to Scorsese's original cut running too long. The second cut Scorsese submitted faced a potential NC-17 rating by the MPAA because of an excess of nudity and sex After all, The Wolf of Wall Street is all about the hedonistic lifestyle that main character Jordan Belfort embraced during the Wall Street boom of the '90s, so it's no surprise that the film would have its fair share of skin. The final cut Scorsese submitted clocks in at 179 minutes, the director's longest film to date.
The Wolf of Wall Street will be in theaters on Christmas.
[via /Film]
[Trailer 2] The Wolf of Wall Street
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I'll keep this one short and sweet. The Wolf of Wall Street, despite worries that it would be delayed until 2014 due to a ridiculously long runtime, has officially been confirmed for Christmas. It's a good thing, too, because this second trailer for Martin Scorsese's next film justifies just why you'll want to spend your Santa Day at the theater.
Unlike the first trailer for the film that was all sizzle and style, the new trailers gives some background on the film's protagonist, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), and his rise to the top of Wall Street in the early '90s. The biopic has a dark comedy tone to it, moving away from recent Scorsese and DiCaprio collaborations (Shutter Island, The Departed, The Aviator, etc.). With Jonah Hill and Matthew McConaughey in supporting roles, it won't be hard for the film to keep the comedic tone up.
Once again, The Wolf of Wall Street will be hitting theaters on December 25th.
The Wolf of Wall Street might release in 2013 after all
A couple of weeks ago, word came out that The Wolf of Wall Street would miss a 2013 release date due to Paramount Pictures wanting director Martin Scorsese to trim the film's three-hour cut closer to two hours. At the time, it appeared that the extra editing would take an extended period of time, possibly delaying the film into early January. However, a Christmas miracle may be taking place in the editing room.
While the film is all but guaranteed to miss its original November 15th date, Scorsese and long-time Scorsese collaborator/editor Thelma Schoonmaker are working frantically to trim the film down with intentions of submitting it to Paramount before Thanksgiving. If the duo can turn in a suitable cut by then, it's likely that Paramount would release the film on Christmas, delaying their other Christmas Day release, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, into next year. Considering Scorsese's pedigree and any Oscar attraction, it makes sense that Paramount would want to release The Wolf of Wall Street by the end of the year.
[via /Film]
The Wolf of Wall Street might slip into 2014, missing Oscars consideration in the process
It looks like Martin Scorsese's (The Departed) next film, The Wolf of Wall Street, might miss its scheduled November 15th release date. Reports have come out that Scorsese submitted a three-hour cut of the film that still has to be trimmed down closer to a two hours. Unfortunately, the editing process to ensure the final film runs smoothly will take an extended period of time.
The most important factor in the potential delay is that The Wolf of Wall Street will miss the window for Oscars consideration. Even if a film does well critically, any film released post-holiday almost always gets looked over come awards season. The first trailer for the film exuded energy and charisma, and waiting longer would be a huge critical blow for Scorsese and fans alike.
[via /Film]
[Trailer] The Wolf of Wall Street
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The Wolf of Wall Street is the fifth collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese. When a director and actor are able to click on a creative level, movie magic happens, as can be seen by the pair's previous films (The Departed, Gangs of New York, Shutter Island, The Aviator). The Wolf of Wall Street is based off of Jordan Belfort's memoir of the same name where he details his rise and fall in the stock market.
Money talks, and that certainly rings true throughout the entire trailer. Paired with Kanye West's "Black Skinhead," the trailer is full of energy and really good editing. When Scorsese and DiCaprio make a film together, you know it's going to be good; with Jonah Hill (This is the End) and Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe) supporting, the humor will definitely be covered. It might not be the action film we'd want from the Scorsese and DiCaprio, but they definitely know how to do drama.
The Wolf of Wall Street will be out on November 15th.