Movie Review Double Feature
With the long weekend this past week I was finally able to find some time to sit down and watch a couple of movies that I had been hearing very good things about & was eagerly anticipating. Those two movies were The Wolf of Wall Street & the killer whale documentary Blackfish, whilst these are two very different film I had a very enjoyable time with both however only one receives my MUST WATCH recommendation.
During my break the first movie I watched was The Wolf of Wall Street directed by Martin Scorsese & starring Leonardo DiCaprio. This film is a screen adaptation of the memoirs of Jordan Belfort, a corrupt stock broker who committed securities fraud in the 1990’s.
Right from the outset this film leaves no doubts as to the depths of morality that it will explore, with one of the opening scenes depicting DiCaprio blowing cocaine into a prostitutes backside. From here on out the film explores themes of greed, sex, drug use & dishonesty. For a film that based off of actual events I found the fact that the damage & grief inflicted upon the victims of these crimes was left out to be a big oversight as it seemingly glorified the events & removed some of the satirical aspects of the film & could have easily been including by cutting some excessive scenes & thus improved the overall meaning/importance of the film. With that being said though this movie did provide one of the funniest moments in movie I have seen in a long time when DiCaprio & Jonah Hill’s characters take out of date quaaludes known in the movie as “lemons”, which have a delayed effect. I almost recommend watching the film just for this scene.
Once again DiCaprio provides one hell of a performance & I would be shocked if he is once again snubbed for an Oscar. In conclusion this movie was definitely worthy of the three hours of my time, however I cannot say it is a definitive must watch as I understand that some themes may not be for everybody, so if your fine with graphic drug use & lots of nudity check this one out 4.5/5.
Next up on my unwatched movie pile of shame was the killer whale documentary Blackfish which explores the fatal attack on a Seaworld trainer by Tilikum the orca & whether captivity played any part & if Seaworld could have prevented it.
From everything I had heard about this film I was expecting this to be very emotionally gripping & possibly even hard to watch, both of which turned out to be true. The movie introduces you to both the whales & some former trainers by briefly outlining their backgrounds which instantly gives the viewer a sense of connection with these people & animals. The viewer is then taken on journey through the history of Tilikum, in accordance with the court proceeding following the tragedy, be that violence/aggression by him or towards him & details of the emotional distress he was placed under & how that was demonstrated physically. Right throughout this journey you begin to empathise more and more with the animals & I even found myself questioning my moral standing on the matter of animals in captivity, which is obviously what the film makers wanted.
Due to the emotional weight & power of this film I defiantly say that this is a MUST WATCH for everybody, animal lovers or not, because you will come out of this experience with a changed perspective 5/5.
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