SMALLS GOES CRAZY WITH THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

The Wolf of Wall Street is yet another film about people trying to live the American dream by doing bad things, and the character of Jordan Belforte emerges as an American hero of sorts.

The Wolf of Wall Street follows Jordan Belfort (Leonardo Dicaprio), as he makes a spectacular rise on Wall Street, earning untold amounts of dollars scamming rich people via penny stocks and using the money he earns in various debauched ways. Along for the ride is his new best friend, Donnie Azof (Jonah Hill) and Jordan's new hyper-sexual wife, Naomi (Margot Robbie).

The Wolf of Wall Street is a decidedly different film for master director Martin Scorsese. In Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese lets loose. The focus is more on wild fun than anything else. The film is extremely funny (It's a comedy! definitely the best and most funny comedy of the year) and we get countless scenes of full frontal nudity (probably most nudity I have seen in a film), sex, heavy drug usage, and various other acts of insanity that you must see to believe (what's crazier, this film is indeed based on a true story). You can tell that the talented cast and director had a blast making this film, and we have just as much fun watching them have fun.

Leonardo Dicaprio stars as Jordan Belfort, who steals from the rich and gives to himself and his friends. He's definitely not a nice guy, but amazingly I loved him and rooted for him. Not once did I want to see him get caught. Dicaprio puts on one of his best performances hands down (he is completely uninhibited here, and plays the role with a primal energy), and if he doesn't walk away with the Oscar for Best Actor then something is seriously wrong. This guy definitely deserves it. Jonah Hill also wows as dweeb-ish Donnie Azof, best friend to Jordan. He is every bit as insane and depraved as Jordan is, if not more so. Jonah plays against type here, and is very memorable. This is easily his best role to date.  I fully expect him to win Best Supporting Actor. Margot Robbie manages to impress as Naomi, Jordan's beautiful and sexy wife who gets fully nude a few times and has no problems showing off her body. Matthew McConaughey shines in a small role as well, and Kyle Chandler is great as the dick of a FBI agent that is hot on Jordan's tail. Every actor is on their A game here, no matter how big or small their role.

Wolf of Wall Street is a 3 hour film (originally it was 40 minutes longer and had even more sex and nudity in it, if you can believe that. That was the cut that received an NC-17, forcing Scorsese to trim the extra 40. As is, the film is still pretty close to an NC-17), and thus you really start to feel it after a while. I struggled through the last 45 minutes. Most of the film is a fun joyride through debauchery and naughtiness, but the end gets surprisingly dark and even a bit sad.

The Wolf of Wall Street is superbly shot, it's got a fantastic script, and top notch performances from all of it's cast. While it does run a bit long, every single second of this film is necessary. For most of the film you will be having so much fun watching all the depraved insanity that you shouldn't notice the running time except for when the last 45 minutes rear their head. Wolf of Wall Street is the most fun you will have in a movie theater this year, it deserves a Best Picture nom, as do Leo and Jonah for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. The Wolf of Wall Street is another out of the park home run for Martin Scorsese. SEE IT!!!

5 STARS

FROZEN GIVES SMALLS FAITH IN THE MODERN DISNEY MUSICAL

Most Disney musicals these days just can't get it right. Princess and The Frog was more of an attempt to revitalize the hand drawn animation style than anything else (sadly, it didn't work. It's main character was a tiny bit stereotyped, and the songs were just ok with the exception of a notable few. Really the only thing memorable about that film was it's main villain Dr. Facilier). I LOVED Tangled, but more as a film than a musical. The story and characters were great (as was it's animation style), but the songs were way too poppy and also not very memorable. While Disney announced that Tangled was to be the last Disney animated fairy tale musical, that didn't mean that it was to be the last Disney musical. Luckily for us, Frozen carries the torch onwards in quite a fantastic way.

Frozen follows the journey of two sisters, Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell), who live in the kingdom of Arendelle (a clear stand-in for Norway). Elsa, who is blessed/cursed with magical snow powers, is forced to hide her gift after a tragic accident almost takes Anna's life. The two sisters slowly drift apart (emotionally, not physically) over the years. On the day of Elsa's coronation as Queen, Anna inadvertently causes Elsa to reveal her icy powers to a terrified kingdom. Elsa flees in fear, in the process accidentally freezing the whole kingdom. With the kingdom crying for Elsa's head, Anna volunteers to find Elsa and convince her to thaw the Arendelle while Anna's new squeeze, Hans (Santino Fontana), stays behind to take care of things. During her journey Anna teams up with Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his reindeer Sven, and a friendly snowman named Olaf (Josh Gad) who loves warm hugs and dreams of frolicking around during summer (unaware what happens to snow when heat is involved). Together, they discover the true meaning of love, family, and sacrifice. 

Frozen is easily the best Disney musical I have seen in a VERY long time. Most of the songs are of a Broadway quality, the characters are pretty strong and memorable, and the plotting is fairly strong. The film takes place in an icy winter wonderland, and the visuals are downright breathtaking. All the snow is beautifully animated, as are all the frozen landscapes Anna journeys through. The 3-D sampled here is also of a surprisingly high quality. Snow pretty consistently flurries in front of audience's faces (the numerous snowstorms are all breath-takingly beautiful and in your face, and the different icy environments all look gorgeous in 3-D). Apparently, Frozen was planned to be released in 3-D, so Disney took the appropriate steps to plan properly....and it shows! Not only are there plenty of in your face  moments (like the previously mentioned snowstorms, and Olaf's carrot nose), but the added depth is also pretty fantastic as well. I'd say Frozen is well worth the extra dough for the 3-D experience to be had here (it's not necessary, but it is altogether a delightful experience). Not to mention, the short that accompanies the film (entitled Get A Horse) MUST be viewed in 3-D in order to fully appreciate it (it's easily one of the best Disney shorts in recent memory. It's innovative and creative in surprisingly new ways. Guarantee you will love it!).

I don't have many complaints with Frozen (there's a sudden change of motivation for one character, it felt like it was moving a bit too quickly at times, the way it's going to end is kind of obvious minutes in advance, it all ties up a bit too neatly), but it's so damn good I'm willing to overlook them. There are a total of 9 original songs (Guarantee you AT LEAST one, maybe more, of these songs will be nominated for best original song), and each is just great (I've already purchased 4 songs, and am seriously considering buying the rest). Frozen is the rare Disney film to give me hope that it could, one day in the hopefully near future, become a full fledged Broadway musical. It's clear that this may have been what Disney was setting up. After all, each of the main voice actors (Santino Fontana, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, Kristen Bell) has Broadway experience and as I've already stated the songs have a Broadway flair and quality to them. All that's needed is to extend some of their songs, add some new songs, flesh out the characters a bit more (one character in particular), and BINGO! we have Broadway musical. I could see it working out beautifully (I can actually envision how it would look and work on stage). So, MAKE IT HAPPEN DISNEY.....please?

Frozen is one of the best Disney musicals out there today. I'm going to go so far as to say that it could easily become a new classic (I could see it being mentioned in the same breath as Lion King, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and the other Disney classics). It's themes about family and true love and the mature way it handles these topics make it a notch above other recent Disney films (plus, it's so pretty!). In my own personal opinion it's a shoe-in for best animated film (can't think of any other animated film this year that was as great). Frozen is sure to cast it's spell over any movie-goer. The settings are mythical and mesmerizing, the voice talent is tops, the songs are superb, the 3-D is great, the visuals and animation are jaw-dropping, the characters are memorable and the story has the makings of a classic. Frozen isn't just a great Christmas film (you know, because lots of snow and stuff), it's a great film PERIOD and it's just about guaranteed to warm the most icy of hearts. I would HIGHLY recommend it.

4 STARS