The Best Film of the Year!

Rating: 9/10 (3 January 2014)

The Wolf of Wall Street is an immensely entertaining, darkly funny movie about (and filled with) excess.
Every performance is nearly perfect (especially DiCaprio and Jonah Hill). With a cast as large as this (I'd say there's at least a dozen important characters) you'd expect to have at least one performance fall flat, but that didn't happen here.
The writing is very good. Nearly every line of dialogue is filled with expletives, but that doesn't bother me at all. The story was completely new to me, so all the little twists and turns were interesting. The plot itself might not be anything revolutionary, but it's very effective. The whole audience in my theater was laughing consistently, so we all "got" the humor in this dark morality play.
The very best aspect of the film might be Scorsese's direction and overall filmmaking decisions. The way he told this story was amazing and I absolutely loved all the little flourishes, especially breaking the 4th wall.
I can't think of a negative aspect of this film. The three hour running time completely flew by for me. I've watched 90 minute movies that seem much longer than this one did.
Since I don't give out "A" ratings after only one viewing, The Wolf of Wall Street gets an "A-" from me. I can realistically see this film getting an "A" upon re-watch and joining my Top 30 Favorite Films list. Great stuff.