The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Complete excess and debauchery is the name of the game in Martin Scorsese's newest offering, "The Wolf of Wall Street". All at once the characters are the top of the heap, and the very bottom of the barrel. They are disgustingly wealthy human beings who are drug-addled sex fiends, and also happen to be real people. The lavish stories of intoxicated misadventures have mostly been corroborated by other participants of main character Jordan Belfort's memoir. Mostly. That fact alone makes this film a little hard to digest at times, because the things these people do are so extremely degrading to many of the people involved. For the first two and half hours, of a three hour run time, this film flies by in an almost dream state, until it all comes crashing down in the last half hour (much like the third act of "Goodfellas", without the body count... or "Layla").

Scorsese, with the help of director of photography, Rodrigo Prieto, moves the camera steadily through this fervent world of stocks and thieves. The script, written by "Boardwalk Empire" creator Terrence Winter, is witty and amusing, with sections of Belfort breaking the fourth wall to "sell" the audience on his story directly. Leonardo DiCaprio seems to be the perfect actor to capture all of Belfort's criminal debauchery. He is energetic and wild, and matched very evenly by Jonah Hill, as his right-hand-man Donnie Azoff. This ensemble, including Jon Bernthal, Rob Reiner, and Matthew McConaughey, among others, is the best of the year, and makes this film an absolute pleasure.

Grade: A-
3D: N/A
Easter Egg: No

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Rob Reiner
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer(s): Terence Winter - Book: Jordan Belfort
RT: 180 min
Rating: R for sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence