Quartile rating: 8/10 · 2 ratings
A New York stockbroker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, corporate banking world and mob infiltration. Based on Jordan Belfort's autobiography.
Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street is a bravura showcase for DiCaprio's career-best performance, backed by a phenomenal ensemble including Jonah Hill and Margot Robbie in her breakout role. The acting earns a clear 4. The plot, while entertaining in its excess, follows a fairly conventional rise-and-fall arc familiar from Goodfellas and other Scorsese crime films — competent but not groundbreaking. Cinematography is polished and energetic but not particularly distinctive for Scorsese's canon. The film's hedonistic excess is fun but the approach of glamorizing crime to critique it was already well-trodden territory, keeping Novelty at 3. The ending, while deliberately anticlimactic and thematically pointed (Belfort faces minimal consequences), feels intentionally deflating in a way that works morally but is somewhat unsatisfying dramatically.