Despite indulgences in morality and filmmaking, one of the best movies of the year.

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2013)

Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" adapts the autobiography of Jordan Belfort, a high-rolling stockbroker selling penny stocks and committing securities fraud. It's an excellent movie, but I imagine most conversations about it will undoubtedly center around two things -- its length (clocking in at about three hours) and its obscenely gratuitous displays of moral depravity (much of the three hours revolves around sex and drugs).
Fresh from his portrayal of Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby," Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Belfort, a very similar character in many respects. Both are self-made playboy millionaires engaging in shady business dealings, living on Long Island's Gold Coast, and throwing wildly extravagant parties. But Belfort can perhaps best be described as Gatsby taken to the extreme of hedonism -- with a penchant for hookers and blow, battling an addiction to Quaaludes. DiCaprio gives a ferocious performance as the figurative wolf on Wall Street (the savagery of his speeches to his employees and the intensity of his drug-addled rampages both border on having almost animalistic fury), and odds are high that this is the role that will finally earn him his Academy Award for Best Actor.
While Belfort allows himself indulgence upon indulgence with his lifestyle, so too does Scorsese with his filmmaking. There are countless scenes of sex-crazed stock brokers, cocaine-fueled orgies, and naked blonde bombshells. The novelty of the debauchery wears off quickly, and it veers toward becoming boring and repetitive over the course of the three hours. Despite the film featuring so many orgasms, there is no climax to its narrative arc. There is no moral or psychological growth in Belfort's character. Don't expect repentance; there's just more and more degeneracy.
But these concerns don't get in the way of how entertaining the movie is from start to finish. The black humor of screenwriter Terence Winter's script adds constant hilarity to even the most morbid situations and helps with the pacing of the film. Jonah Hill and Margot Robbie give stellar supporting performances as Belfort's business partner and wife, respectively.
"The Wolf of Wall Street" is easily one of Scorsese's most ambitious films, one of DiCaprio's most memorable roles, and one of the best movies of the year.
9/10 stars.