What I wrote was a gut reaction to "The Wolf of Wall Street," and that was the morning after I saw it. Since then that movie has stuck with me, and here's what friends are for. I called one yesterday and he said, "Maybe Marty (Martin Scorsese) was chided for making mobsters too likable, too easy to relate to, with "Goodfellas" and "Casino." He may have backed up and said, 'you want the real thing? Here you go.'" Maybe, and that's friends can be good for--added perspective. "Wolf" certainly is that, barbarism in its rawest form in a while. "In the Company of Men," Neil LaBute's film from 1997 was also uncompromising, but had a fun maliciousness with a deeper level of chicanery and character arc than "Wolf." It still wasn't palatable to many back then, except for those who sat down and saw it. "Wolf of Wall Street" is palatable because it's done by such top talent, and yet, after reading interviews with Scorsese and DiCaprio, it isn't a studio picture. It's nominated as a comedy at the Golden Globes, but goes deeper. It's better than I wrote. I also said it contained the distrust of women. The despicable values and behavior of men does not include the distrust of women. Films need to be judged on their own, and the distrust theme isn't there, though the longing and pursuit are.
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