(TS

7THE WOLF

OF WALL STREET

Red Granite Pictures

Scorsese Continues to Shake up Hollywood

Laura Mooney
Arts Editor

ontroversial director Martin

Scorsese has yet again made
headlines with the release of his
latest film, The Wolf of Wall Street,
and has caused quite a stir with
some of the movie industry’s
largest contributors. The film,
starring Leonardo DiCaprio and
Jonah Hill, portrays the real life
story of infamous stockbroker
Jordan Belfort and his less than
honest rise to Wall Street glory.
Based off of Belfort’s autobiography
of the same name, The Wolf of
Wall Street has quickly grabbed
the attention of movie-goers for
its crude nature and its blunt
examination of a man ruled by
greed who uses his money to
exploit his darkest fantasies.
However, while the average person
is rushing to the theatres to see
Scorsese’s over the top tale of
corruption, the members of the

movie industry itself were not
overly pleased.

Members of the Academy, who are
responsible for the movies chosen
for Academy Awards nominations,
are no strangers to Scorsese’s
violent and curse-filled films,
however The Wolf of Wall Street
seemed to blow all of their other
past judgments of Scorsese out of
the water. In early December during
a showing of The Wolf of Wall
Street to the Academy members at
the Samuel Goldwyn theatre in Los
Angeles, the film was rumoured to
have caused a bit more than just

a few raised eyebrows. Articles
released in the following days from
The Daily Mail and The Guardian
stated that during the Qand A

that followed the screening of the
film, Scorsese was approached by
multiple members of the Academy,
including screenwriters and actors,
who screamed at the director,
telling him his film was disgusting

and vile. Actress and Academy
member Hope Holiday, who had
attended the event, went on to post
a condemning rant on her Facebook
page, claiming that the showing
was “three hours of pure torture,
nothing but the same disgusting
crap over and over again,” and that
Scorsese should be ashamed of
himself.

Scorsese is more than used to

the Academy not enjoying his
films, with the exception of the
family friendly romp Hugo, and
has even become quite famous for
his record- breaking amount of

F- bombs and violent scenes that
he loves to include in his films.
Scorsese has received negative
feedback from Academy members
for nearly all of his films, including
Goodfellas and The Departed, so The
Wolf of Wall Street being negatively
received was no surprise for him.
This raises questions though: is
the negative feedback surrounding

the film simply a by-product of

the outdated, overly conservative
members of the Academy? Or has
Scorsese finally gone too far with

a film? Although the film is an
interpretation of Jordan Belfort’s
autobiography, much of the content
was, naturally, exaggerated for the
purpose of entertainment. The Wolf
of Wall Street has been released only
in limited theatres at the moment,
but it has already become infamous
for its blunt and graphic sex scenes,
drug-fuelled content, and certain
scenes that would make even those
with strong stomachs cringe. While
the film has received overly good
reviews from critics and average
movie patrons, and will even make
a decent amount at the box office,
the public will simply have to wait
to see if Scorsese has finally gone
too far and will be snubbed the
Oscar nomination that he very
much deserves.