the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Jay Coyle and Darren Mooney, with special guests Luke Dunne and Aoife Martin, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, concluding our Summer of Scorsese with his most recent film on the list, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street.

Martin Scorsese is one of the defining directors in American cinema, with a host of massively successful (and cult) hits that have shaped and defined cinema across generations: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, Kundun, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, Hugo, The Irishman. The Summer of Scorsese season offers a trip through his filmography via the IMDb‘s 250.

Jordan Belfort developed a reputation as one of the most amoral stockbrokers working in the financial industry, wearing the name “the Wolf of Wall Street” as a badge of honour. Belfort is afforded the chance to tell his own side of the story, of the gaudy excess and tasteless indulgence that defined the industry for so many years.

At time of recording, it was ranked 142nd on the Internet Movie Database‘s list of the best movies of all-time.

Show Notes:

• Recorded 19th October 2020.
• Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
• The Wolf of Wall Street on the Internet Movie Database.
• The IMDb 250 at time of recording.
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• Read Luke’s work at Film in Dublin.
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• Elissaveta M. Brandon at Bloomberg on the resurrection of the drive-in cinema in the midst of the pandemic, September 2020.
• Nathan Rabin reviews Cape Feare at The A.V. Club, November 2012.
• John Ortved, Chris Turner and Ray Richmond pick their favourite episodes of The Simpsons for Time, December 2019.
• Joe Reid compares Cape Fear to Cape Feare at Decider, November 2015.
• Pamela McClintock at The Hollywood Reporter reports on The Wolf of Wall Street becoming Martin Scorsese’s highest grossing film, February 2014.
• Todd Cunningham at The Wrap on The Wolf of Wall Street as an unlikely Christmas blockbuster, December 2013.
• Tom Brueggemann at IndieWire tries to guage the box office success of the cinematic release of Roma, November 2018.
• Anousha Sakoui at Bloomberg on Netflix’s decision to keep the box office returns from the cinematic run of Roma, November 2018.
• Brandon Katz at Observer on the question of whether The Irishman could have been a conventional box office success, November 2019.
• Chris Lindahl at IndieWire discusses the length of The Irishman, August 2019.
• Zack Sharf at IndieWire looks back on initial reports of a four-hour runtime for The Wolf of Wall Street, August 2019.
• Thelma Schoonmaker talks to The New York Times about the art of editing long movies, January 2014.
• V Renée at No Film School on the importance of length in film editing, August 2016.
• Thelma Schoonmaker talks to Collider about the challenge in editing The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Thelma Schoonmaker talks to Vanity Fair about the art of editing Martin Scorsese, January 2014.
• Jeff Labrecque at Entertainment Weekly reports on the delay on the release date of The Wolf of Wall Street to allow for editing, September 2013.
• The Associated Press reports on the pushing back of the release date of The Wolf of Wall Street, October 2013.
• Katey Rich at Vanity Fair reports on The Wolf of Wall Street as a Christmas box office smash, December 2013.
• Charles Gant at The Guardian reports on the success of The Wolf of Wall Street at the British box office, January 2014.
• Pamela McClintock at The Hollywood Reporter looks at foreign censorship of The Wolf of Wall Street, January 2014.
• Chris Newbould at The National reports on the surreal United Arab Emirates edit of The Wolf of Wall Street, January 2014.
• Pamela McClintock at The Hollywood Reporter discusses how the French have embraced The Wolf of Wall Street, January 2014.
• Nancy Tartalione at Deadline reports on the success of The Wolf of Wall Street in European markets, January 2014.
• Anita Busch at Deadline reports on the battle to secure an R rating for The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Mark Paul at The Irish Times looks at Ireland as “the world’s biggest tax haven”, June 2018.
• The trailer for The Wolf of Wall Street, June 2013.
• Randall Poster talks to MTV about the use of “Black Skinhead” in the Wolf of Wall Street trailer, December 2013.
• The trailer for Silence, November 2016.
• Roula Khalaf at Forbes reports on Jordan Belfort, October 1991.
• John Paul Rollert argues that Wolf of Wall Street is “the most anti-greed movie ever” at The Atlantic, February 2014.
• David Denby at The New Yorker criticises Gangs of New York for obscuring the African American perspective, December 2002.
• Steven Perlberg at Business Insider on how Wolf of Wall Street obscures Jordan Belfort’s victims, December 2013.
• Zach Schonfeld at The Atlantic reports on how Belfort’s victims are reacting to The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Patricia Hurtadoand Christie Smythe at Bloomberg report that Jordan Belfort has not been paying the debts that he owes to his victims, May 2018.
• Jordan Belfort talks to Vulture about his life and his career, December 2013.
• Charlie Gasperino at Fox Business reports on the deal that Jordan Belfort made selling the rights to The Wolf of Wall Street, March 2013.
• Matt Joseph at We Got This Covered looks at allegations that Beflort covered up how much he made from The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Reuben Baron at Comic Book Resources on the use of Gary Glitter in Joker, September 2019.
• Tommy Chong talks to Macleans about his time in prison with Jordan Belfort, January 2014.
• Jordan Belfort talks to Vanity Fair about serving time in prison, February 2014.
• Gary Sussman at Entertainment Weekly reports on Tommy Chong getting sent to prison for selling bongs over the internet, October 2003.
• Jesse Eisinger at The New York Times looks at how only one banker went to prison for the financial crisis of 2008, May 2014.
• The BBC reports on the financial scandal surrounding the financing of The Wolf of Wall Street involving Riza Aziz of Malaysia, May 2020.
• Rozanna Latiff at Reuters reports on the investigation into possible fraud and money laundering involving the funding of The Wolf of Wall Street, May 2020.
• Steve Pond at The Wrap reports on the strong reaction against The Wolf of Wall Street at an Academy screening, December 2013.
• Martin Scorsese talks to Deadline about why he chose to avoid moralising in The Wolf of Wall Steet, January 2014.
• Leonardo DiCaprio talks to The Morning Call about his dislike of movies that moralise too heavily on their subjects, December 2013.
• Alan Wilzig complains to Business Insider about his portrayal in The Wolf of Wall Street, January 2014.
• Fran Hoepfner writes at Bright Wall/Dark Room about the numbing and exhausting gratuitousness of The Wolf of Wall Street, April 2016.
• Matthew McConaughey talks to IndieWire about how his famous chest-thumping made its way into The Wolf of Wall Street, April 2020.
• Matthew McConaughey talks to The Independent about how comes up with a unique tune for each character, February 2017.
• Tasha Robinson at The Verge argues that The Big Short is The Wolf of Wall Street “with a conscience”, December 2015.
• Jordan Belfort talks to The Guardian about the differences between Wall Street and The Wolf of Wall Street, January 2014.
• John Paul Rollert at Chicago Booth Review on the moral ambivalence of Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, August 2017.
• Terence Winter talks to IndieWire about the similarities between The Wolf of Wall Street and Goodfellas, November 2013.
• Steven Perlberg at Business Insider reports on seeing The Wolf of Wall Street with a group of bankers, December 2013.
• Steven Zeitchik at The Los Angeles Times on the polarised reactions that audiences had to The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Alonso Duralde at The Wrap on the online controversy and outrage around The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Margot Robbie talks to The Guardian about her life and career, February 2018.
• Martin Scorsese talks to IndieWire about making the audience complicit in Belfort’s crimes, January 2014.
• Cameron Stewart at The Australian looks back at how Jordan Belfort published The Wolf of Wall Street, May 2014.
• A.O. Scott at The New York Times on Leonardo DiCaprio’s portrayals of avatars of American capitalism, February 2014.
• Rachel Syme at The New Yorker contrasts Leonardo DiCaprio’s work in both The Great Gatsby and The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Leonardo DiCaprio talks to NPR about working on The Wolf of Wall Street, January 2014.
• Jonah Hill explains to Variety that he only earned $60,000 working on The Wolf of Wall Street, January 2014.
• Jonah Hill talks to The Daily Beast about the use of a prosthetic penis in The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Jonah Hill talks to Grantland about eating the goldfish in The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Jonah Hill talks to The Independent about being hospitalised for snorting too much fake cocaine on the set of The Wolf of Wall Street, May 2019.
• Spike Jonze talks to Vulture about how he came to appear in The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2012.
• Rachel Syme at The New Yorker reports on “the McConaissance”, January 2014.
• Matthew McConaughey talks to IndieWire about how his Oscar win was the result of a larger body of work, October 2020.
• Andre Gruttadaro at Complex offers a brief history of Leonardo DiCaprio and the “Pussy Posse”, November 2015.
• Anne T. Donahue at Paper Magazine on the history of Leonardo DiCaprio and the “Pussy Posse”, November 2015.
• Tom Murray at Insider discusses Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating history and his fascination with younger women, March 2019.
• Olivia Wilde talks to The Huffington Post about being too old to play Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriend in The Wolf of Wall Street, March 2016.
• Maria Di Angelis talks to The New York Post about filming the orgy scenes in The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Leonardo DiCaprio talks to Deadline about the challenges of getting the funding to make The Wolf of Wall Street, December 2013.
• Mike Fleming Jr. at Deadline reports on the possibility of Ridley Scott directing The Wolf of Wall Street, July 2010.
• Kevin Jagernauth at IndieWire explains the delicate financial balance in which Scorsese operates, April 2012.
• Justin Chang at The Los Angeles Times profiles Martin Scorsese as a director navigating a changing landscape of Hollywood, November 2019.
• Evan Arnett at The Globe and Mail on Uwe Boll’s exploitation of tax loopholes to make his movies, June 2015.
• Jesse David Fox at Vulture reports on Adam Sandler’s transition to streaming, March 2017.
• Jenn Selby at The Independent reports on how Adam Sandler became too expensive for studios, December 2014.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: aoife martin, capitalism, complicity, excess, gangsters, goodfellas, greed, jason coyle, jay coyle, jonah hill, Jordan Belfort, Leonardo diCaprio, luke dunne, margot robbie, martin scorsese, Matthew McConaughey, money, morality, power, scorsese, sex, summer of scorsese, the wolf of wall street, Wall Street |