A highly amusing but deeply disturbing look at the American dream of excessiveness and self obsession!

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2014)

'THE WOLF OF WALL STREET': Five Stars (Out of Five)
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio's fifth film collaboration together is this dark comedy biographical film based on the life of self-made millionaire Jordan Belfort (it's also based on his book of the same name). Scorsese directed the movie and Terence Winter wrote the screenplay (Winter was a regular writer for 'THE SOPRANOS' and previously worked with Scorsese on another popular crime show called 'BOARDWALK EMPIRE'). DiCaprio plays Belfort in the film and it's his second time playing a crazy self-made millionaire in the same year (following 'THE GREAT GATSBY' from last summer). Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, Spike Jonze, Ethan Suplee, Jean Dujardin (of 'THE ARTIST' fame) and the gorgeous Margot Robbie all co-star in the movie. The film is highly amusing but it's also a deeply disturbing (and completely honest) look at the American dream of excessiveness and self obsession.
The film is narrated by Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio), who often speaks directly to the camera, as he explains how he rose from the middle class to become one of America's most successful stockbrokers (and make millions). We meet many of his other crooked but brilliant cohorts along the way, like Donnie Azoff (Hill) and Nicky Koskoff (P.J. Byrne). Belfort was married twice and had a daughter but could never quite settle down and stop his crazy sex and drug habits. His many illegal business tactics eventually attracted the attention of the FBI.
The movie once again supports the popular belief that in order to get ahead in this world you can't really care about anything; the more you're willing to compromise your morals the more money, sex and popularity you'll achieve (that's what people ultimately respect). It's sad but true. Of course there's always exceptions to this accepted way of life but they're very few and far between. DiCaprio is once again genius in the lead role and Scorsese's directing is (once again) masterful. The supporting cast is all excellent as well (especially McConaughey who's had an amazing last couple of years). It's perhaps a tad too long at three hours (no movie really needs to be that long) but the running length fits the main theme of the film (excessiveness). The movie is especially entertaining because it does appeal to the weakest part of human nature: just living life to the fullest without caring about anything. There are so many hilarious drug and alcohol abuse scenes (which is one of my biggest temptations and weaknesses) and the movie is just a blast to watch (even if there is too much of it). It's definitely not for everyone but I'm always surprised to see people walking out of a movie like this (just a third of the way into it, on it's thirteenth or fourteenth explicit and outrageously crude sex scene) like they didn't know what they were paying to see! The film is a masterpiece and Scorsese and DiCaprio prove once again why they're one of the best cinematic teams working today (perhaps even better than Scorsese and De Niro were)!
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