Review of The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) by Toni S — 24 Nov 2015

It was one of the most controversial and talked-about films of the year, and marked Scorsese and DiCaprio's most unhinged collaboration yet. I dreaded its infamously excessive run time (close to 3 hours), but I was thankful to have never been bored at any point.

Wolf Of Wall Street is a slickly made, well written, exuberantly acted piece of cinematic dynamite. I really can't think of a more fitting metaphor than that. It's a tale of greed, back-stabbing, debauchery and the ultimate consequences of a person's selfish actions.

DiCaprio takes on arguably his most energetic and downright hilarious role, and instils a blood-hungry savage stock broker with charisma, bravado and, most surprisingly of all, likeability. In less capable hands our hero may have emerged as a hammy, one-dimensional jerk with no way to go but further and further over the top, but when he hits his low points you feel genuinely sorry for him.

The first hour is a riotous and borderline hallucinatory journey into the life of a man with one mission: Make as much money as quickly as possible. From the beginning, with his meteoric rise to success, the celebrations, the friends, the relationships, it's clear it's all going to go badly wrong.

Even when it's not throwing drug-fuelled parties at us, it manages never to become sluggish, but it runs far too long, and could have benefited from losing 30 minutes, largely with the shortening of some scenes which prattle on excessively.

But ironically enough, excessive is the perfect word to describe the film. It has many stand-out scenes, a furious energy, particularly in the first half, boasts a central performance that was rightly acclaimed, and offers up a tonne of fun while also serving as a stark reminder that the higher the climb, the more painful the fall.