The Wolf of Wall Street

The Goodfellas/Casino model gets brasher, louder and more colourful as Scorcese charts the rise and fall of Jordan Belfort, revelling in every second of greed, excess and debauchery that the protagonists indulge in. This is also a very, very funny film. DiCaprio and Hill shine in their roles. Perhaps the film does get a bit repetitive, and maybe lacks focus on the victims of the scams in play; the drama therefore feels a bit empty. However, this is wonderful entertainment, beautifully made.

Belfort=modern day Caligula. No glorification, characters lack redeeming qualities aside from wealth: they're awful people with selfish motivations. Even their grandiose exploits are unattractive! Awkward sex scenes & rampant drug use (while often hilarious) brilliantly highlight dangers of abuse. Performance wise, DiCaprio & Hill are great; off-the-charts & insane. The greedy world Scorsese presents is massive & at times overwhelming; it's a very entertaining spiral, but not an enticing life.

The movie basically ends up doing what Jordan Belfort does to all his investors: testing your patience for three hours until you give in and unconditionally agree that what you're hearing and seeing is truly genius.

As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a stock broker.

I usually don't have a problem with an unlikeable protagonist, but my problem here lies in the fact that I had to sit through three hours of immature gimmicks (drugs, women etc.) which provided no further depth to these characters beyond proving the point that they are shitty, debauched moneygrubbers. I got that in the first hour and the jokes were funny for a good while, but then as the time dragged on I became less amused by how aimless and predictable this was. The acting saved this for me.