Leo's Best Performance to Date

Rating: 8/10 (21 July 2015)

"The Wolf of Wall Street" brings together once again the dynamic duo of actor Leonardo DiCaprio and legendary director Martin Scorsese. This time around Martin Scorsese delves into familiar territory by going back to his crime-ridden roots. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as real life stock-broker Jordan Belfort who quickly becomes infatuated with the corrupt Wall Street lifestyle and over time climbs the Wall Street ladder.
DiCaprio's character comes from humble beginnings but once he is sucked into the lifestyle of the Wall Street world he develops into a wicked and despicable character who commits every vice known to man. Belfort is brought to life by Leonardo DiCaprio's exuberant and flexible performance. This is Leonardo DiCaprio's movie and he takes the bull by the horns and puts this movie on his back. The fact that Leo did not win an Oscar for this role is a travesty. Honestly his performance was way better than McConaughey's from "Dallas Buyers Club." Speaking of McConaughey his little cameo was one of the best scenes in the film.
Leo was not the only standout performance in this movie but he still was the best. The acting overall in this movie is fantastic and the over the top debauchery portrayed by the characters creates a contagious vibe of highly energetic acting that everyone seems to get in on from Jonah Hill to Matthew McConaughey to newcomer Margot Robbie and even Shane from "The Walking Dead." Everyone pulls their weight and creates their own little moments of hilarity that add to the story. This movie was one of the funniest and most entertaining movies of the year. Scorsese really tries to portray every crazy scenario in the most over the top kind of way which just makes it even more unbelievable that this all actually happened.
Now let's look at the flaws of the film. First being it was overlong and a little drawn out at moments. It was like watching the extended version of something. The first two hours just shows Belfort's rise as a broker to his frequent spurts of drug inducing mind boggling shenanigans with his pals. This starts to wear on the audience because we have seen so much of it it starts to become redundant. Then there is the final third of the movie which shows the downfall of Belfort's empire. This changes from the formula of the first two hours because this is where most of the drama is present. The first hour is a blast because we are not quite ready for what will be thrown our way and it also comprises of the most memorable scenes.
In short "The Wolf of Wall Street" is a very funny, entertaining, eye opening, quotable, energetic, overlong, somewhat redundant escapade into high life excess filled with amazing performances. Also to note that this is NOT for kids. 8/10