Holiday movie roundup — The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle

Hello everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your holidays.  My December was filled with snow in my shoes, frost on my eyelashes and my car refusing to start. Pretty standard stuff for Winnipeg.

I had a great chance to recharge my batteries, hang out with friends and family, and eat some turkey.  I even managed to sneak in a trip to Florida.

While all that family, friend and food stuff is great, the best part about the 'most wonderful time of the year' for me is the movies released during December. The major studios generally save their best for last, hoping to generate buzz in order to make some noise during awards ceremonies.

It can be tough to see all of the quality movies released during this time, especially living in a small market like Winnipeg. The month-long break I had from classes gave me a chance to catch a couple of the movies I've been anticipating, and I thought I'd look back on them real quick to start off the new year.

The Wolf of Wall Street

I'm a sucker for anything featuring Marty or Leo, and was so hyped on this movie I actually caught it opening night, December 25th.  The movie's based on the real life exploits of financial crook Jordan Belfort, who made a mint peddling penny stocks in the 1990's.

Wolf is over two hours long, but it flies by at a frantic pace. Leonardo DiCaprio is at his absolute best here; transforming from a tame business man to a cocaine and quaalude fuelled party monster with an unending appetite for more and more money, basically after one meeting with Matthew McConaughey.

The way the film was shot reminds me of Scorsese's 1990 mobster classic Goodfellas, with DiCaprio narrating Wolf much like Ray Liotta did.  Much of the movie is dedicated to showing off the high-flying excess enjoyed by Belfort and his pals (most notably Donnie Azoff, wonderfully portrayed by Jonah Hill) and the movie has been criticized by many for glorifying Belfort's scam and lifestyle. Christina McDowell, an indirect victim of Belfort's, even wrote an open letter to Scorsese and DiCaprio, condemning the film and pleading with the world to ignore it.

I tend to think critics of the film are underestimating the audience. Sure, it's easy to get caught up in the excess and the parties and go along for the drug-fuelled ride, but at the end of the day, walking out of the theatre, I would imagine most people know that what Belfort did was wrong.  The latter third of the movie shows him crashing back to earth, losing his money, his wife, and his kid.  Much like at the end of Goodfellas, he doesn't get away with it scot-free.

The movie serves as a cautionary tale. Not only against ending up like Belfort, but a warning to not become like those he scammed, falling for an impossible chance at making a quick buck. The final scene of the movie shows Belfort speaking at a large conference, giving a seminar on sales. The camera pans over the crowd, staring at him like sheep, showing the audience that a conman can only be successful if he has people willing to be conned.

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American Hustle

  

I could hardy contain my excitement when I briefly talked about this trailer a few weeks ago, and I was not disappointed. The entire cast of the movie works wonderfully together, and this was probably the most fun I've had at the movies all year.  I'll watch Jennifer Lawrence in anything, she's an absolute fireball on the screen, but she doesn't show up in this movie until over 30 minutes in. I didn't even mind, because the heat between Amy Adams, Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper was almost too much to stand without throwing JLaw into the mix.

The plot in the movie was a little hard to follow at times, but actually pretty interesting. Honestly though, that's not why you're going to see this. You're going to see it for the stars, for the ridiculous costumes, and for the insanely good soundtrack.  

The movie's just an absolute blast, and it's so ridiculous it sometimes feels like it's about one step away from a full on musical. I mean that in the best way popular.  My friend Lauren put it best, simply saying "It made me want to dress, dance, and have fun like they did".  The 70's, man.

Also, Bradley Cooper beats the heck out of Louis C.K. with a rotary phone. It's hilarious.

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I managed to get out and catch the other JLaw movie in theatres over the break as well.  The second instalment in The Hunger Games series was a vast improvement on the first. The second book was my favourite in the series, but the movie was better than the first for more than just the source material. Director Francis Lawrence did a great job of raising the stakes with this movie, I'm just a little worried about the studio splitting the third book into two movies.

I didn't spend as much time at the theatre as I would've liked, but I plan on seeing a couple more movies in the next few weeks. At the top of my list are Inside Llewyn Davis and Her, both of which should make some noise at the upcoming Academy Awards.