Movie Review: The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street might be the most over-the-top, gratuitous movie I've ever seen. Going in you know this a movie all about excess, but the lengths in which Martin Scorsese goes to portray it, was to much for me. Its a three hour movie and he takes more times then I can count to show the incredible excess that these crook stockbrokers have. 

The movie starts out strong with a glimpse of what's to come later in the film and then backtracks to the humble beginnings of Leo's character, Jordan Belfort. By far my favorite scene in the movie was with Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey in the restaurant and McConaughey starts beating on his chest like he was the only one in the room. There was an honesty about that scene that I really enjoyed. But everything else just felt like we were being sold how filthy rich all of these characters are and we should just laugh along with them. 

The movie which had much of our packed theater laughing had me wincing. Watching people throw their lives away with drugs, alcohol, and superiority complexes verging on sociopaths just wasn't funny to me. I thought the movie although brilliantly acted (Leo was incredible) just wasn't my cup of tea and for that I can't recommend it.