A brilliant character study that doubles as razor-sharp social commentary.

Rating: 9/10 (23 January 2014)

It comes as no surprise, of course, that Martin Scorsese has found a new muse. After his career-defining work with Robert De Niro over three decades, Scorsese has turned his camera on Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom he's now made five movies in the space of about ten years. That's a pretty impressive number, and a statistically unlikely good set of films to boot. The Wolf Of Wall Street is easily the finest of the lot: a high-wire, high-octane corporate comedy that's as entertaining as it is excoriating - a delicious blast of hellfire distilled into the year's most outrageous biopic.
Based on a true story, Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio) is a clean-cut kid who starts working in one of Wall Street's top stockbroking firms in 1987. His boss Mark (Matthew McConaughey) is a vision of Jordan's future: a man corrupted inside and out, marching to his own odd tribal chant, hopelessly hooked on drugs, alcohol, women and money. When Black Monday forces Jordan to take a job selling penny stocks to the gullible lower class, he picks up a few more tricks of the trade. He resolves to set up his own company that will earn him and his buddies untold sums of money. Soon, he is the talk of the financial sector, and his profligate ways earn him the scrutiny of the federal authorities.
Many have cried foul over the moral bankruptcy that purportedly riddles Scorsese's film. Detractors have argued that The Wolf Of Wall Street seems to be celebrating Jordan's way of life and the varied excesses in which he indulges and soon comes to take for granted. Certainly, having it all strung together - constant drug-taking, casual sex, unchecked profanity, dwarf-flinging competitions - can indeed be too much for viewers of a more sensitive or conservative disposition.
But there is no glorification of Jordan's lifestyle in The Wolf Of Wall Street. It's placed front and centre, and then mined for a constant stream of bitter, brilliant black comedy. We are not meant to sympathise with Jordan, though we can certainly be charmed by him as many of the people he encounters invariably are. Even while we are kept endlessly amused by his increasingly desperate attempts to stay rich and privileged, there is never a point when we're asked to emulate or respect this man. In fact, it becomes clearer as the film goes on that we're not laughing with him - we're laughing at him, as he sinks into a murky swamp almost entirely of his own making.
It's exhilarating to watch Scorsese weave a rich and ever thicker tapestry of depravity around Jordan. Despite clocking in at a hefty three hours, the film feels like it's sprinting throughout: running at full-tilt in the same way that Jordan is living - and no doubt shortening - his life. Pouring copious amounts of drugs and drink into his body, he brings his friend Donnie (Jonah Hill; hilarious) with him, moving from the sticks to the big time. He trades in his first wife, practical brunette Teresa (Cristin Milioti; biting) for blonde bombshell Naomi (Margot Robbie; more than meets the eye). When things start to go south, he charms Naomi's Aunt Emma (Joanna Lumley; saucy) into fronting a bank account for him in Switzerland.
Along the way, Scorsese has crafted his funniest picture in years. Comedy isn't a genre that one typically associates with him: he brings to mind brooding gangster epics, boiling with crime, passion and cold hard cash. Well, those three elements are present and accounted for in The Wolf Of Wall Street too, but it's truly a riotous experience. There are many memorable scenes: from Jordan urgently demanding to sail his fancy yacht through the worst sea squall ever, through to a night when Donnie and Jordan dope themselves up more than even they would consciously dare to.
At the heart of this crazy, crime-ridden maelstrom sits DiCaprio, who delivers what is unquestionably the finest performance of his career. He's always been reliably good but, as Jordan Belfort, he's transcendent. Fierce, reckless, dark, bright, charming, foolish, clever, sly, mad, sane, desperate, confident - he slips effortlessly across this entire range of emotions and moods. It's because DiCaprio somehow manages to make this selfish monster recognisably human that detractors have fretted so at the film's alleged glorification of its lead character. However, just because we can spot glimpses of humanity beneath Jordan's loopy antics doesn't mean we are meant to condone them.
At the same time, DiCaprio manages to play it all just big enough for the film's physical comedy to be some of the most committed and self-assured you'll see this year. The moment when he tries to get into his car while super-duper-mega-high is the comic highlight of the entire film: an extended joke that will bring down the house even as it subtly, skilfully blends slapstick and social commentary.
Could The Wolf Of Wall Street have made the same points with an hour shaved off its running time? Sure. Would it have been as fun? Nope. So, if you can steel yourself for more abject depravity than you have ever seen on screen (it packs 569 'fuck's into 179 minutes), you'll be rewarded with a brilliant, blistering character study: one that applies a scalpel-sharp wit and huge helpings of irony to its main character and the world in which he lives.
Beyond that, Scorsese's tale is a cautionary one. Comedies often make us laugh by allowing us to forget who we are. The Wolf Of Wall Street reminds us of the depths to which humanity can sink: it stares the American Dream right in the face, and suggests that pursuing it can lead straight down a rabbit hole lined with heroin, hookers and hubris. For a Hollywood film, that's bold. For a comedy - that's unprecedented.