The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street is two hours and 59 minutes of 1980s sex, drugs, foul language, greed, blind ambition, loose morals, blurred lines, corruption and just plain bad behavior—all this without the usual Martin Scorsese mobsters, murder, guns, blood and violence. Instead, we get a taste of the full-on unscrupulous life of a Wall Street stockbroker, supposedly based on the life of a real person, Jordan Belfort, but surely exaggerated and glorified. The movie depicts a different kind of "white collar mobster" with classic New York accents and single-minded drive to be the King Pin of the financial world.
It's a rollicking story and a fun movie for adults, but only if you're willing to suspend your own morals for a while and just enjoy the ride. It is an engaging story, yet, three hours of debauchery did get a bit tiresome—after the main characters' third near-fatal overdose on Quaaludes and cocaine, I began to think enough already. There could've been a little bit of film dedicated to the actual details of how the stockbrokers really worked, how they made the millions, how they duped their customers, and how the government and most of Wall Street looked the other way. Scorsese did throw in some tidbits here and there, but mostly this was a story about the wild and crazy, up and down life of Belfort.
Leonardo DiCaprio played the main character, and Jonah Hill played his partner. They both did a great job. They both deserved their Academy Award nominations. Some of the dialogue was superbly written and executed. DiCaprio as the ultimate salesman was riveting—some of the speeches and monologues that he delivered were fantastic. I was completely sold on his character and believed that he could sell anything to anyone. Matthew McConaughey gives a short cameo at the beginning, which is pure genius. Jonah Hill had some of the funniest lines and scenes. The supporting cast was believable and the direction/editing pure Scorsese. The movie was able to shock me and make me laugh at the same time. I recommend it.