10 Movies That Made You Root For Monsters
3. The Wolf Of Wall Street – Jordan Belfort
It’s no secret that the real-life Jordan Belfort is a grade
A d*ckhead. Between doing obscene amounts of drugs and apparently having sex
with anything that moved, Belfort managed to swindle over $110 million out of
stock buyers – of which he’s only paid around 10% back – and earned himself a
22-month stint in jail.
The movie doesn’t exactly pussyfoot around this either. Within the first few scenes, we know exactly the kind of man Jordan Belfort is. And yet with the ever-charming Leonardo DiCaprio playing him, Belfort comes across as a kind of working class hero just trying to claw his way to the American Dream and sticking it to the man along the way. Someone who’s likeable even when he’s chucking lobsters off FBI agents’ heads like a brat or so out of his tree on Quaaludes he can barely function.
But a Robin Hood-like character Belfort was not. He wasn’t stealing from the rich to give to the poor but rather defrauding largely blue-collar victims out of huge amounts of money and that’s alongside being a bastard in his personal life too like repeatedly cheating on his wife and endangering his daughter’s life by driving whilst high.
He’s about as toxic as it gets but thanks to DiCaprio’s performance he’s strangely affable. Shame on you and your charming chops, Leo.