Perfect in execution, but anything new.

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2014)

The Wolf of Wall Street can be considered a flawless movie but I left the cinema with a bittersweet sensation.
Lets start with the positive points: Firstly, the direction is outstanding. Scorsese at his best, he can manage the pace of the film to the extreme of not being a bit boring despite of the 3 hours of duration. Every shot, every scene has been done with extreme care and talent.
Secondly, the main star, Leonardo Di Caprio's acting is stunning, absolutely Oscar worthy. Marlon Brando would be proud of his successor. The rest of the cast is great but, in my opinion, not amazing. Jonah Hill is not Joe Pesci, for example.
Finally, production values. The target of this film was to show a luxurious, glamorous and excessive lifestyle of some new (very) rich men and I can swear that this film succeed in that.
Following with the negative points I will start remarking that I feel I'm being a bit unfair. If this film was been made by another director I wouldn't give such importance, but this is a Scorsese's movie and a serious contestant for the best movie's award.
The main flaw of The Wolf of Wall Street is, in my opinion, that the plot is good, sometimes brilliant, but anything special. It lacks of deepness and capacity of surprise. And the storytelling is quite conventional.
I recognize the enormous effort of Scorsese in the way of how he tries to represent the cruelty of the extreme ambition and excesses of Jordan Belfort and his comrades and the visually magnificent representation of the effects of drugs. The ambiguous morality of the film is well received too.
The problem is that there are already a lot of movies that manage both Wall Street and drugs stories in a better way that this movie does.
In conclusion, a technically perfect movie, worthy of watching in cinemas and in the level of Scorsese's last films (which is not a bad thing) but it's sad to say that it seems we can't expect anything from our beloved director worthy of surpassing (or even matching) hits like Raging Bull or Taxi Driver.