This is now the fifth collaboration between DiCaprio and Scorsese and to date it’s probably their best. Much like he did within Goodfellas, Scorsese pushes viewer’s sympathy for the central character to the very limits. While it would be a huge disservice to merely claim the Scorsese has replaced stockbrokers for gangsters, there are clear comparisons between the two.īoth are based on the real-life memoirs of their respective anti-heroes, with DiCaprio’s performance reminiscent of Ray Liotta’s portrayal of Henry Hill in the 1990 mobster epic. Oliver Stone’s Wall Street might seem like the most obvious cinematic reference point for Scorsese’s latest feature, but in reality it’s the director’s own seminal gangster classic, Goodfellas that feels like a much better comparison. How he was able to manipulate the stock market through his brokerage firm Stratford-Oakmonth, to fund the lavish drug-fuelled lifestyle he had grown accustomed too, before his eventual prosecution by the FBI in 1998. The film chronicles the life of Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), from his metaphoric rise within Wall Street to his equally impressive downfall. A three-hour long odyssey that explores the real-life story of stockbroker Jordon Belfort, whose decadent lifestyle of excess and debauchery would put even the notorious Roman Emperor Caligula to shame. MARTIN Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street plays out like the capitalist fantasies of Gordon Gekko’s wildest dreams. This one is no exception.Starring – Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Mathew McConaughey, Rob Reiner and Kyle Chandler As a comedy so much of it works, but almost all comedies can wear out their welcome if they run on too long. I loved his first family film “Hugo” and unlike the director’s previous works, this is more of a comedy above anything. Scorsese to me is still one of the best filmmakers working today and I do like that he is trying things a big different. “The Wolf of Wall Street” is quite good but it just isn’t great. We hardly get any time with the investigation. If the film had to be 3 hours, I would have liked to see more time spent with Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler), who has been working on taking down the criminal broker. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great moments in those scenes but they could have been trimmed down. “The Wolf of Wall Street” is quite excessive especially when dealing with Belfort’s drugs, sex, parties. Azoff was a strange individual and Hill definitely delivers the strange. Jonah Hill’s performance is also unlike anything I have seen before from the comedic actor. DiCaprio shows us in that sequence that he is capable of pulling off physical comedy. There is once scene which involves “lemons” that has to be one of the funniest sequences of the year. I absolutely loved DiCaprio here and I don’t think I have ever seen the actor have so much fun with a role. This included hiring little people to throw at a velcro target, bringing marching bands into the office, along with daily visits by prostitutes for the brokers. His partner Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) along with Belfort’s band of brokers who were trained by a script that Belfort comprised made so much money that they had to invent ways to spend it all. “The Wolf of Wall Street” is based on the true story of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort (played wonderfully by Leonardo DiCaprio) who built his fortune by defrauding investors. I wanted to love “The Wolf of Wall Street” and there is so much great stuff in there, but it just goes on for way too long and because of that it had me lose interest off and on. I am pretty sure if at least 30 minutes were shaved off, the latest Scorsese/ DiCaprio team-up would have made my 10 best of the year list. Normally a film’s runtime would not play a huge part on my feelings towards it but the 180 minutes (3 hours) I feel are not justified. I already know that I am going to take a whole lot of flak for this review from people who absolutely love Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street”.