As much a scam as Belfort himself

Rating: 1/10 (15 February 2014)

SPOILER ALERT
Based on the autobiography of convicted fraudster Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street is as much a scam as Belfort himself. While the former swindles investors out of their money, the latter cheats the viewers of their time.
There are numerous reasons why this film is an utter failure.
Firstly, there is no depth to the characters and character development is non-existent. They start of as superficial, one dimensional caricatures and end as such.
Secondly, there is no context. We aren't afforded the opportunity to understand where the madness began. We are never shown the victims and the effects of the perpetrators' fraud.
Thirdly, there is no plot. This film is simply three hours of persistent, droning debauchery. In fact, it almost appears that Scorsese's aim was just to exhibit endless variation of depravity, with no plot and no context to justify it. And that's my main gripe: the film is just three hours of gratuitous obscenity, with a redundant plot, no sense of direction and absolutely no purpose. We wait for the film to 'take off' but it never really does. It, quite simply becomes a gluttonous and disturbingly self-indulgent seminal celebration of human piggishness, rot and squalor.
Which brings me to my final point: the film is an unapologetic celebration of human baseness and predation. We are left to absorb the gamut of tedious depravity and obscenity without any particular meaning or point to it; besides perhaps crass titillation.
With its rave reviews, box office success and Oscar nominations, I think it's fitting to refer to The Wolf of Wall Street as the Emperor; with no clothes.