“The Wolf Of Wall Street” (2013)
Why Was It A Surprising Nomination? Right from the moment of its Christmas Day release, Martin Scorsese’s maximalist, excessive, gaudy Wall Street extravaganza polarized critics and audiences alike. A far cry from the safe middlebrow prestige drama that, rightly or wrongly, is regarded as the Academy’s cup of tea, its obviously Oscar-friendly elements—Scorsese, DiCaprio, topicality—were offset by the film’s unapologetic garishness, something a few viewers apparently confused with the filmmakers condoning the behavior they showed. But really, what the pre-nomination debate boiled down to, was an argument that often dogs the Oscar race: one of “worthiness.” There is a sense in which a film that tackles a serious topic should be difficult, it should be a bit of a slog, it should be hard to watch and you should come out feeling thoroughly taught, maybe angry, but certainly not entertained. “The Wolf of Wall Street” is outrageously entertaining, which, even for those who weren’t offended by their own misinterpretation of its point of view, threatened to discount the film from the Oscar discussion on the grounds of lightweight-ness: the Academy has never favored comedies, and while ‘WOWS’ is technically a drama, it’s certainly the funniest drama we’ve seen in a while. It’s undoubtedly true that in a five-nomination year ‘WOWS’ wouldn’t have been a contender, but for our money that proves the wisdom of the category change of itself: purely by its presence in the mix (no matter how little chance it has at actually winning) the film expands a little our idea of what an Oscar film could be. And let’s not forget that its respectable five nominations are in fact across five major categories too, so it does seem to indicate a level of widespread Academy acceptance that the initial reaction might not have suggested possible.
Why Was It Nominated? Leaving aside the unlikelihood of anyone but Scorsese making this film (it’s a remarkably Scorsese-ish picture after all) it’s highly unlikely that if it didn’t bear his name, we’d be looking at a five-times nominated movie. Outside of the Best Picture nod, this will be Scorsese’s eighth Best Director nomination, with just the one win, for the relatively minor-feeling “The Departed” under his belt, and we don’t think the wellspring of goodwill toward a director who’s become little less than the patron living saint of American Cinema can be overstated, especially as everyone kind of knows in their heart of hearts that his Directing Oscar was wildly overdue and came for the wrong movie. But back to Best Picture: the subject matter reflects well on the Academy for being relevant, it stars and is produced by golden boy-turned-power-player Leonardo DiCaprio, and it marks a welcome return to controversy for Scorsese after the relative stateliness of “Hugo.” Come to think of it, why did we ever doubt it would make it in?
How Does It Hold Up Now? Well, with the benefit of just under two months of hindsight we’re still fans—some more than others, it should be said—and it’s been interesting to watch the initial furor die down and to see what’s left in its wake. Some might argue that, shorn of its controversy, “The Wolf of Wall Street” is a somewhat empty experience, while others have enjoyed the opportunity to savor its quieter pleasures, like some of the tremendous smaller performances, not least from Kyle Chandler whose scene on the yacht with Belfort is powerhouse, and doesn’t get enough props. We’ve the feeling that this is a film whose retrospective reputation will change as we get further away from the events it satirizes and start to look at it in terms of craft and in terms of its place in Scorsese’s body of work, but right now it just feels good to have Marty, at 71, turn in a film so exuberant and vital.
Of course, an organization with the Academy’s long history has had a few more surprising moments than that. A few Best Picture nominated films whose nominations were surprising for reasons sexual, political or social and that we thought about for this piece included, in roughly chronological order: “I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang” (1932), a social issues drama starring Paul Muni which actually effected the release of the man on whose story it was based; “La Grande Illusion” (1937) Jean Renoir’s French-language masterpiece; 1945’s “The Lost Weekend,” a pretty unflinching film about alcoholism; “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947) which dealt overtly with anti-semitism and racial prejudice just a couple of years after the end of WWII; 1948’s “The Snake Pit” which was set in a women’s insane asylum; Otto Preminger’s “Anatomy of a Murder” (1959) which, while a courtroom drama, addressed sex and rape in pretty graphic terms; classic literary adaptation “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962); Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” (1964) which, being a pitch-black comedy was in a genre the Academy seldom recognizes; two 1967 films “The Graduate” and “In the Heat of the Night” which for different reasons seemed controversial choices for Oscar; three Bob Fosse movies—musicals “Cabaret” (1972) and “All that Jazz” (1979) and scorching biopic “Lenny” (1974) were all outside the Academy wheelhouse; while the overtly political “Reds” (1981) and the homosexual love story “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (1985) were also anything but obvious Oscar picks. “Goodfellas” (1990) nomination was kind of a surprise at the time for its violence and profanity—of course the real surprise now is that it lost out to “Dances With Wolves”; and then over the last few years, changes in the category have meant smaller films like ”District 9,”(2009) “Winter’s Bone,” (2010) and “The Kids are All Right” (2010) have seen their way in, where previously these films would have been most hopeful of festival recognition rather than Academy kudos. “Inglourious Basterds” also got in to 2010’s awards, but by the time “Django Unchained” picked up its nod in 2013 we had ceased being surprised by the Academy’s embrace of all things Tarantino.
If nothing else, these films, among others should maybe convince us to at least qualify the rhetoric around the Academy’s conservative tendencies—surprising choices are a minority, but they’re there. Anything else in the Best Picture category through the years make your jaw drop? Tell us below. —with Jessica Kiang (who would like to respectfully disassociate herself from the “Pulp Fiction” assessment).