Scorsese's boldest and ballsiest film to date!

Rating: 10/10 (10 January 2014)

Though it's structured identical to GoodFellas, The Wolf of Wall Street is the most original film I've seen in years! The screenplay is flawless, the performances are amazing, the direction is sharp and ambitious, the cinematography and editing are beautiful, the everything about this film is perfect!
The screenplay I thought was brilliant, but it was also very interesting. Terence Winter doesn't waste your time. Usually with these financial films I feel myself being bogged down with all of this mindless technical jargon, but Winter doesn't do that here. There actually sequences where Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio) talks directly to the viewer, and he goes on a tangent, but stops himself and actually says "Ya know what? You don't care about this." A ballsy choice.
The performances were one of my favorite aspects of the film. Scorsese has a talent for pulling brilliant performances out of DiCaprio, but this was unlike anything I've ever seen. He was crazy and disgusting and rude, but he was also sharp and witty and very original. The other two major standouts for me were Jonah Hill, who really caught me by surprise here, and Matthew McConaughey, even though he's only on screen for about fifteen minutes.
There are so many scenes in this film that I could talk about, but I won't because I'm not sure I know what to say to do them justice. I will say though, during the overdose sequence, I couldn't help but feel that I was watching cinematic history being born. That's going to be that one extraordinary scene that people remember and talk about for years and years to come.
I haven't even scratched the surface with this film, but I don't know that I know how. Martin Scorsese is my favorite filmmaker of all time, and he certainly out did himself here. Many great films came out in 2013, but this is the only one that I can say with the utmost confidence is a masterpiece! The most bold film achievement that the studios have released in my lifetime!