A major Scorcese winner!

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2014)

Even if I'd seen this movie without credits and completely unaware of what I was about to see, I would have known right away that it was directed by Martin Scorcese. The first person narration  the content of the narration, with many "lists" of characters, events, details, etc. reeled off  the Thelma Shoemaker editing  Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead  and, of course, the tone of gleeful naughtiness throughout. (MAN, what parties!)
But did familiarity breed contempt? Not in the slightest! For me, this was "Goodfellas meets Boiler Room meets Wall Street"! When a three-hour movie feels like a two-hour movie, there's no denying that you were totally into it. I'd rate this as easily the best of the five Scorcese-DiCaprio collaborations (not that I didn't like some of the others).
DiCaprio has plenty of support from a thick, diverse cast. Jonah Hill's part could have been played by any number of actors, but he does a perfectly acceptable job while providing marked visual contrast with the lead  just like he did in MONEYBALL. The real find is Margot Robbie as the love interest  yowsuh! She almost won my annual "best non-costume" award (Rosario Dawson in TRANCE was the 2013 winner), and I certainly hope that she'll keep trying!
Is it for you? I very much recommend that you use GOODFELLAS as a yardstick. I can't imagine much of a disparity in anybody's scores for the two movies.