The Wolf of Wall Street

Jordan Belfort is a scumbag. Wolf of Wall Street gleefully shows us this in the opening 90 seconds of the three-hour saga, skillfully establishing the tone and the general dicky-ness of said scumbag protagonist. Scorsese and DiCaprio remind us, in case we forgot, that Wall Street criminals are as bad, if not worse, than Mafia criminals. Wolf of Wall Street feels a lot like a white-collar version of Goodfellas or Casino, but instead of “goombas” whacking guys in dark alleys, the killing is being made in the daylight, over the phone, and on the trading floor, and all of the participants seem willing. Outrage over the sexuality here seems misplaced. Yes, there’s plenty of nudity, but all the sex scenes are between consenting adults and its nothing we haven’t seen on HBO or Showtime. Besides! What about the dwarf tossing? Where’s the outrage for that? I don’t understand why people would reserve their outrage for a movie with sex scenes in it, versus the real screw job perpetrated by the Wall Street swindlers. Scor-Caprio™ delivers the movie the Wall Street criminals deserve: a total indictment of stock market greed and American over-consumption. They never stand on a soapbox and pass judgment on their anti-heroes, but depiction is not endorsement, either. Instead, they force us to examine who we are as a culture (see also: Spring Breakers) and to ask ourselves why would THIS be a way of life that Americans should aspire to have?