A Tale of Two Scorseses

I recently saw two films that have much in common, both semi-fictionalized stories based on real-life stories of American greed/corruption, and both are period pieces that faithfully replicate the awful hair and fashions of their time. American Hustle is directed by David O. Russell and evokes some of the classic films directed by Martin Scorsese , like Goodfellas and Mean Streets. The Wolf of Wall Street is directed by Scorsese himself and at times seems bordering on self-parody. So how does the homage stack up to the work of the master?

American Hustle is loosely based on the events surrounding ABSCAM in  1978-80 (a title card proclaims “Some of this actually happened”).  Christian Bale as hustler/scammer Irving Rosenfeld buries himself in a paunch and awful combover wig. Amy Adams is Sydney, his mistress/partner in crime. Bradley Cooper is Richie, a permed out FBI agent, and Russell’s muse Jennifer Lawrence is Irving’s bored wife Rosalyn. Adding to the excellent cast is Michael Pena, Louis C.K. and Jeremy Renner as Carmine Polito, the mayor of Camden, NJ.

When Irving and Sydney get caught peddling fake loans, Richie offers to give them amnesty in exchange for helping take down corrupt  politicians in New Jersey. Things get complicated when Irving and Carmine develop a relationship and become friends. Then the mob gets involved (look for a very Scorsese-esque cameo here) and Rosalyn threatens to derail the whole operation out of spite. There are enough crosses and double-crosses to keep things interesting. It’s a great character-driven drama with plenty of humor, sex, and muscle, thanks to Russell’s ever-moving camera.

The Wolf of Wall Street is also a very loose adaptation of a real life memoir, this one by Jordan Belfort, who amassed wealth mainly by stock fraud in the late ’80/90s. It’s a luridly fascinating story, but Scorcese fails to capture the human aspect of Belfort’s character (played broadly by Leonardo DeCaprio). Instead, Scorsese piles on the spectacle, protraying Belfort’s story as a non-stop orgy of sex, drugs, and self-destruction of the highest order. And not very original spectacle at that. Belfort is protrayed as a combination of Gordron Gekko, Charles Foster Kane, and Scorcese’s own Rupert Pupkin (from The King of Comedy). DeCaprio snorts mountains of coke, gobbles Quaaludes, and delivers gung-ho, bulgy-eyed pep talks (in an exaggerated Noo Yawk accent) to his boiler room of young stock brokers. Jonah Hill is great as usual as Belfort’s partner Donnie Azoff.

Not for the faint at heart, the film contains lots of gratuitious sex and nudity (both male and female) and the dialogue contains what seems like trillions of F-bombs.  At over 3 hours, the film feels slightly bloated. The drama and humor here is wayyy over the top, and the themes of sex/power/money/greed are a bit stale and predicatable, like we’ve seen this all before.  Scorsese seems like he is recycling his much of his own work here. Not a good thing.

American Hustle : A

The Wolf of Wall Street: B Minus

Music 2013: The Good, the Bad and …Other.

I finally got around to posting my year end best- and worst- of  list for music. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time and money this year fixing the lower half of my house after last winter’s flood. So I can’t properly do a top 10 (or even top 5). Rather, here are 2 records I really liked, 2 that were decent but meh, and one flat-out disappointment.

The good:

Wolf’s Law by the Joy Formidable. The sophomore album by these Welsh alt-rockers is a bit more polished and less self-consciously ’90’s / shoegaze-y then their debut. That can be a good thing, though. The radio-friendly music does not overwhelm, but rather enhance, the very mature lyrics in songs like “The Ladder is Ours”. Most of the album is very loud, but manages to sound intimate at the same time. Melodies and choruses will grab hold of your brain and hang on for dear life.

The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case. Check out my recent review of this album for details. Not her best, but very, very good.

 Meh:

The Electric Lady by Janelle Monae. Not as great as 2011’s The Archandroid, but how could it be? The sci-fi narrative from her previous work continues here, but the music is not as compelling or eclectic. The best moment, by far, is the cameo by Prince. His Royal Purpleness contributes vocals and guitar on “Given Em What They Love” and sounds completely at home in the Robo-Boogie-Wondaland universe created by Monae.

Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots. Not a bad record, but I expected more from these two vital artists. Was hoping for a genre-busting collaboration: what we got sounds more like a soundcheck for Jimmy Fallon. The lead single Walk Me Uptown is great, but elsewhere EC’s songwriting is slight and occasionally a lazy re-tread of his early work. The Roots crew provides some nice grooves but not much else and MC Black Thought is sorely missed here. This album just begs to be remixed, but as it is, works best as party background music.

The Bad:

Mosquito by The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. I love everything by this band, but this was a big letdown. There’s plenty of noisy guitars, thumping drums,  and Karen O chirps and moans on cue, but the songs are just not there. Sounds more like a bunch of incomplete ideas rather than a cohesive work of art.

Single of the year: Of course it has to be Same Love by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Although technically from 2012, this song from our local heroes made the most impact this last summer. Their other singles Thrift Shop and Can’t Hold Us are also classics, but Same Love’s message of equality and inclusiveness was a most unlikely (and welcome ) radio hit, even in the so-called “Red” states. (Props also to these men for showing the world that musically, there’s more to life here in the Emerald City than Pearl Jam.)