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
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