Now I know.

Rating: 6/10 (25 March 2014)

I have always been very skeptical about those "get rich (quick?)" seminars we see advertised and formed my own conclusion that, if you're a charismatic orator and, perhaps, an author of a best-selling motivation book, and highly overrate your own value, it isn't hard. You don't need to be good in business (legitimate business, that is). All you need to be is a good con artist.
I have heard it said that, if you make an A4 size flier with your picture filling most of it and just something like, "MARVO the world's greatest hypnotist is coming to (your town)" along with dates and venues in small type at the bottom and get a whole pile of them letter-boxed, even if you have no idea about hypnotism, you can do this. A couple of days after the fliers have been delivered, just go and knock on some doors until someone says, "Wow!! You're that hypnotist on the flier I got the other day!" Then just look the person straight in the eye and say, "Sleep" and they will fall down right there in front of you. The person saw the flier and believed what it told them so that, when they saw the person whose picture was on it, they were already pre-programmed. And that, in a nutshell, is how con- men work.
And that is also what "The Wolf of Wall Street" is all about. How Scorsese made it last for three whole hours is certainly testimony to his expertise as a director. But, strangely (for me) I thought he really missed the boat as far as the film's full potential was concerned. Maybe Bob Guccione would have done it better because he would have REALLY shown all the porn scenes without bed sheets and subtle camera angles to hide the juicy bits. Whether the movie would have been better for that is, of course, debatable depending on where you stand with regard to both porn and accuracy. (Maybe there is a directors cut version!)
As it is though, "Wolf" is nothing more than (I presume) an insight into just how corrupt the world of big business is and makes me glad that I have never been there. It is nothing more than three hours of gratuitous profanity, drug abuse and naked debauchery and definitely not worth the time.
How it got nominated for an Academy Award mystifies me. I can only assume that some members of the Academy related to it in some way.