Posts Tagged ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’
Film Review – The Apprentice
Imagine taking the scene between Matthew McConaughey and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – in which the former gives advice to the latter on how to be a successful stockbroker – and expanding it out to feature length. What you end up with would probably resemble The Apprentice (2024).…
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Film Review – Pain Hustlers
Pain Hustlers (2023) is a good example of a movie unsure of what kind of story it wants to tell. It starts off as a rags-to-riches tale, in which a determined character does whatever they have to in order to move up the economic ladder. We…
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Film Review – Babylon
If La La Land (2016) was Damien Chazelle’s ode to the romantic dream that is Hollywood, then Babylon (2022) is his impression of it as a nightmare. This is Tinseltown at its worst – a land of decadence, drugs, sex, and death. The allure of fame is an addiction,…
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An Appreciation – The Age of Innocence
“The most violent film I ever made” That’s a bold statement coming from Martin Scorsese, given that much of his work involves characters committing extremely violent acts. But in The Age of Innocence (1993), the violence he references is not of a physical nature. You…
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Film Review – I Care a Lot
It’s a nasty scheme. A doctor – under dubious circumstances – picks out one of their patients. They make sure the patient is financially secure, has little to no acquaintances, and are elderly but healthy enough to stick around for the near future. The doctor…
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SXSW Film Review – Operation Odessa
The story behind Operation Odessa (2018) is so outlandish that it could only be told in documentary form. If this were made into a narrative film I wonder if people would buy it. But the remarkable thing is: the events that take place did in…
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Film Review – American Made
Tom Cruise is a marquee name in a world that is gradually becoming less interested in marquee names. Unlike the heyday of the 70’s and 80’s, branding a film on the charisma of its star is no longer required or expected to produce a hit.…
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Film Review – The Founder
Knowing only of director John Lee Hancock‘s history of treacle-infested biopics (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks) and next to nothing about McDonald’s “founder” Ray Kroc, I walked into The Founder sure I’d be seeing a sparkly piece of glorified Americana. And while the sock-hop…
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