The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American biographical black comedy film directed by Martin Scorsese. The screenplay by Terence Winter is based on the memoir of the same name by Jordan Belfort. The memoir tells the story of Belfort’s career as a stockbroker, who is arrested in the 1990s for securities fraud and money laundering. He was released from prison in 2013 after serving 22 months.
The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, with Jonah Hill as his business partner and friend Donnie Azoff, Margot Robbie as his wife Nadine Caridi, Teresa Petrillo, and Kyle Chandler as FBI agent Patrick Denham. Supporting roles are Kyle Chandler, Matthew McConaughey, and Jon Bernthal. The film opened the 2013 Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2013, and was released in limited release on December 25, 2013, by Paramount Pictures.
The movie has received mixed reviews from critics, who praised DiCaprio’s performance as Belfort and Demme’s direction but criticized the script. At the 86th Academy Awards, nominations were announced a month before the film’s release with “The Wolf of Wall Street” receiving twelve nominations including Best Picture. The movie was nominated for a total of five Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor – Musical or Comedy for DiCaprio and Best Director for Scorsese. The film received ten BAFTA nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Scorsese, winning both awards. It also received three nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), including Best Actor for DiCaprio.
The movie received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The Wolf of Wall Street is the second time Scorsese has directed Leonardo DiCaprio (he first did in Gangs of New York in 2002) and since both actors have worked with Jonah Hill before as well. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 25, 2014, by Paramount Home Media Distribution.
The story is based on Jordan Belfort’s memoir of the same name. The memoir recounts the author’s years as a stockbroker in New York City and living an extravagant lifestyle. It’s about his founding of a firm that engages in securities fraud and corruption on Wall Street that eventually leads to his downfall.
After leaving the stockbroker business, he was convicted of fraud and money laundering in 1999. [1] [2] Belfort was released from prison after serving 22 months.
“The Wolf of Wall Street” begins in November 2002 with Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his protégé Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) on the day of their failed attempt to take over a major brokerage firm. They are joined by broker Margot Robbie (Margot Robbie) and her boyfriend Pat Denham (Kyle Chandler). Belfort believes he will be able to turn around the firm, even though the task is too much for him. The firm’s executives—brash Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey), laid-back Danny Porush (P.J. Byrne), and lanky Jean Dujardin—are skeptical, to say the least.
Belfort’s first step in attempting to legitimize his firm is an attempt to get his old broker license back. The application is denied and he must take a refresher course. But Belfort, who already has several criminal counts against him, can’t refrain from holding up the class, much to the chagrin of the instructor.
When Belfort and his associates go to visit an elderly widow, they discover that she has left her entire estate to buy stock in a new company she’s heard about from an investment adviser. Belfort and his friends decide to take over the company, showing up at her house in party outfits. Belfort and his brokers strike a deal with the widow: They will buy 40% of her stock for $20 million. Her stock is worth more than $100,000,000—a fraction of what it will be worth after the public announcement of its acquisition.
But before long, Belfort and his friends have lost most of that money when they are accused of insider trading by Denham. The firm is forced to shut down. But they eventually pay the widow back in full and then regain her trust by offering their services to hopefully recover the money they lost from the original insider trading plan.
They start up their business again, this time creating a “pump and dump” scheme to increase share prices of specific stocks. The firm once again attracts Denham’s attention, but he gets tricked into buying worthless stock after Belfort gives him a tour of a successful brokerage office.
Belfort’s girlfriend, Nadine (Margot Robbie), is working as an assistant for a New York City stockbroker, and Belfort tells her that he has difficulty making ends meet. When she invites Denham to the Times Square Apple Store to show him the firm’s brokerage house, he notices that Belfort and his associates are there too. He confronts Belfort in one of the nearby booths but is turned away.
Belfort and his associates are arrested soon after. Azoff is able to escape, but Belfort and his crew are arrested. All of them, except Donnie Azoff, end up serving jail time on Rikers Island for their crimes. The FBI raids their houses but finds nothing illegal, other than paperwork that could be linked to the victims of their fraud (which they can’t do anything about). Belfort eventually convinces his wife not to divorce him while he is in jail.
In his final moments, Belfort finally realizes what he did wrong when he tried to take over a firm that had taken care of one of his employees during his illegal activities.
