Scorsese says booby

My three-year-old great nephew and I are putting together a puzzle while his mother makes lunch in the kitchen.

"It's rude to say booby," he says.

"Is it?" I ask.

"Yes it is.  Billie (his playmate) says booby".

My niece -- his mother -- swoops out of the kitchen, grabs him up and sets him on the bottom stair  in the front hall for a time out.  Nephew begins to wail; he's outraged at the injustice.

 When his mother comes back into the living room, I can't resist.

"Really?" I ask.  "He wasn't really saying 'booby', he was just reporting that other people say 'booby'." My niece laughs.  "Really?  How naive are you?  That's his way of getting to say 'booby' and -- he hopes -- getting away with it."

The Wolf of Wall Street is Martin Scorsese's way of saying booby.

In telling the story of former stockbroker and convicted criminal Jordan Belfort, the movie "reports" the depravity and debauchery that characterized the Wall Street Belfort describes in his memoir.  Whether or not the movie is factual -- or, more importantly, true -- is not the point.

The point is that Scorsese uses this vehicle to show us -- over and over again --  what must surely be his own disgraceful view what women are here on this planet to be and do.  If that were not the case, would 50 per cent or even 10 per cent of what he has depicted not have been enough?    Not too many minutes into the film, we all got the point.  The rest was just on-screen wanking.  The rest of it, Mr. Scorsese, was just you saying booby.   I think it's time you gave movie-goers a break and took a time out.  With any luck, for the rest of your natural life.