The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
★★★★ — The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Based on the memoir of the same name by Jordan Belfort, the actual fraudster at the centre of the story, The Wolf of Wall Street arrived in late 2013 as Scorsese's fifth collaboration with DiCaprio and one of the most expensive films either had made to that point. Red Granite Pictures, a relatively young Malaysian-backed production company, co-financed the $100 million production, a decision that later attracted considerable legal scrutiny when the company's funding sources came under investigation. Scorsese had spent much of the preceding decade on more sober, awards-oriented work (The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, Hugo), and this felt like a deliberate gear-change, raucous and sprawling. At 180 minutes it became his longest feature, and Margot Robbie's role here functioned, more or less, as her international breakthrough.
Three hours of pure, uncut greed, delivered with the energy of a guy who’s just discovered espresso and Red Bull can be mixed. And at the center of it all: Leonardo DiCaprio, chewing scenery like it’s gourmet steak and spitting out motivational speeches that make you want to rob a bank… or at least start a pyramid scheme. Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio) isn’t just a salesman, he’s a sorcerer. A man who could sell ice to a polar bear and then convince it to fund his yacht. His pitch is pure charisma, bravado, and the kind of unshakable confidence that makes you question why you’re not already a millionaire. The film doesn’t just show how he scams the rubes, it makes you the rube, hypnotized by his chaos. Jonah Hill’s Donnie Azoff is the unhinged id to Belfort’s calculated ego, and Margot Robbie’s Naomi is aspirational, untouchable. Scorsese directs this like a hyperactive maestro conducting a symphony of excess: drugs, hookers, Qualudes, yachts, tiny helicopters, and enough suits to cloth a small nation. The editing is relentless, the dialogue rapid-fire, and the moral compass is tossed out the window at the 20-minute mark. It’s not subtle, but subtlety doesn’t belong in a film where a stockbroker ODs on the trading floor and gets revived with a syringe to the neck. It's absolutely too long but it’s also a masterclass in how to make corruption entertaining. The film never winks at the audience, it just lets the madness unfold, trusting us to decide whether we’re laughing at the idiocy or with it.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2013 | Watched: 2025-06-15
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Martin Scorsese: Italianamerican (1974) · The King of Comedy (1982) · Gangs of New York (2002) · Cape Fear (1991)
More with Leonardo DiCaprio: Blood Diamond (2006) · The Beach (2000) · One Battle After Another (2025) · Gangs of New York (2002)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
