We’ve somehow struggled, so far, to get excited for “The Wolf Of Wall Street.” Maybe it’s that we’ve started to take Martin Scorsese for granted — his last few films, in “The Departed,” “Shutter Island” and “Hugo” were all highly entertaining, but perhaps not up to the gold standard of the very best of his work. Perhaps it’s that the film seemed to mine, on paper, territory already well-trodden by films like “Wall Street” and “Margin Call.” Or maybe we’re just dead inside.
That said, don’t expect our relative apathy to be the case anymore, because the first trailer for the film arrived overnight, and boy, does it look fantastic. Scored to Kanye West‘s “Black Skinhead” (from his ace new record “Yeezus“), it does seem to be a white-collar ancestor to “Goodfellas” and its ilk, but with a gonzo comedy feel that we’re not sure we’ve seen from Scorsese since “After Hours.” From the brief footage we can see, there’s a post=”Django” looseness to Leonardo DiCaprio‘s starring performance that makes it seem like he’s having much more fun than his angsty earlier roles for the director, and the rest of the cast, including Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Jon Benrthal, Margot Robbie, Cristin Milioti and especially a clearly show-stealing Matthew McConaughey look to be good value too (there’s more to come too; Jean Dujardin, Jon Favreau, Rob Reiner, Spike Jonze, Jake Hoffman, Shea Whigham and Joanna Lumley are among those set to appear, though they’re not in the trailer).
There’s so much to love here, from Hill devouring a live goldfish, to Ethan Suplee seemingly dressed as a young Gene Hackman, to DiCaprio chucking a lobster at Coach Taylor, to live marching bands and dwarf tossing. It’s more than reminiscent of another recent DiCaprio picture too; has Scorsese delivered a better version of “The Great Gatsby” than Baz Luhrmann‘s film of the same name? It certainly looks like a ton of fun, and we’re now counting the days until the film’s November 15th bow. Fingers crossed for a NYFF appearance, perhaps?