Bud's Apartment

I'm a little young to speak from personal 80s experience, but I tend to think yes, some of the design elements are based on true yuppy style from the time. In fairness, I think much of what's become common stylistically for loft-like, cool urban apartments wasn't firmly established yet in the 1980s so there was more eccentricity on display.

That said, of course the involvement of Darien would push the look of the apartment to the extreme.

I think it's vaguely hinted at that Darien is mostly show and not much talent but people buy into it. Darien admits that Gordon got all her clients for her and there's that oddly comical moment when Gordon tries to set his plate down on the coffee table and it falls through- Darien excuses it by saying Bud always does that. That apartment was so disgustingly garish, I can't believe the filmmakers wanted anybody to believe that it was uber hip or desirable, more likely that it was just made up to look expense- with the gold leaf and faux aged walls. I've thought about this before, as I've seen the movie a few times, and it always stood out to me how ugly that apartment looked.

The basic concept is accurate, but they cranked it up beyond what anyone (well ... just about anyone) really would have done, to humorous effect. I actually kind of liked it. It efficiently conveyed how far Bud was straying from anything akin to common sense.

Just a note on "the basic concept is accurate:" exposing existing brick walls was a "thing" at the time. Of course, there's a huge difference between (a) removing plaster or wallboard that's covering up actual bricks versus (b) putting a fascia of fake bricks in a modern high rise. Therein the joke.

I think the apartment was a metaphor for the 80's...overpriced like the stocks, artificially driven up not by value but by perception of value. Gekko references this when he tells Bud about a painting he bought and sold at a huge profit by saying "the illusion has become reality".

Also, as mentioned before, the coffee table...expensive but not functional, yet it was no doubt purchased because it was deemed expensive, not whether it was designed or made well.

Also, during the interior decorating scene, not only were the adornments and walls in bad taste, they were actually fake sidings, basically glued to the existing drywall such as the fake brick facade.

It's also the theme that runs through the entire film, first by Lou Mannheim when he tells Bud how quick buck players come and go, but the longer term players actually make money for companies that provide research and jobs and are helping shape and build the future. Also Bud's Dad comments how Bud could've been something like a doctor and actually be a contributor to society instead of making money in the stock market "racket".

The whole movie could be summed up with Gekko's speech to Bud when Bud confronts him about the Bluestar breakup:

"The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's *beep* You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy? It's the free market."

It was like they were trying to recreate the interior of the Beetlejuice house and failed miserably.