The Wolf of Wall Street

Hotly anticipated 2013 release (2014 in the UK) The Wolf of Wall Street see’s master filmmaker Martin Scorsese turn his directorial eye on the true-life story of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio). Desperate to be rich, Belfort moved to New York as a young man so that he could become a stockbroker. After his first employer fails, leaving Belfort jobless, he takes a job with a much smaller stockbroker. He quickly earns himself a small fortune and sets up his own business, where he goes on to make millions of dollars. The problem is, a lot of Belfort’s business is illegal and it would seem to be only a matter of time before his ‘chickens come home to roost’, as one character so aptly puts it.

The story comes from the memoirs of Belfort himself, which is where the movie takes it’s name from. Large parts of the film are dedicated to highlighting the levels of it’s lead characters’ debauchery, which only gets worse as he makes more and more money. Belfort loves drugs, sex and alcohol to an extreme level, and Scorsese shows us much of it in great detail. Critics of the movie have slated the director for glamourising the life of the protagonist, but my take on the movie couldn’t be further from that.

Blood Diamond

Released in 2006, Blood Diamond tells the story of several different people trying to get their hands on a valuable diamond during the Sierra Leone civil war.

In the opening scene we’re treated to Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) talking to his son, Dia (Kagiso Kuypers) about the importance of going to school. We get an early glimpse of how important they are to each other and what a good relationship they have. They’re a lovely happy family. It’s a classic relationship establishing opener, and you get the sense that things might be about to take a turn for the worse for the family.