Wolf of Wall Street Is a Wild Ride

The new DiCaprio-Scorsese movie The Wolf of Wall Street is getting solid reviews from critics (79% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) and fans alike (86%). Some odds and ends:

• Boring, it's not: It's "an exuberant, hyper-energized riot," writes Richard Brody at the New Yorker. "It’s like mainlining cinema for three hours, and I wouldn’t have wanted it a minute shorter."
• Don't compare to Wall Street: Avoid the temptation to compare this movie to the 1987 Michael Douglas flick, writes Michael Burgin at Paste. "Though the two films share one layer of message—behold the high-flying lifestyle loose morals and shaky ethics can bring you in the land of stocks!—Scorsese’s film is a meaner, more cynical and, worst of all, probably truer vision of the lifestyles of the rich, dissolute and famous." This one "lacks even the pretense of a moral center."

• The stars: "DiCaprio captures this cynical and unsympathetic character effortlessly, and Jonah Hill provides crude comic relief as his nebbishy partner in crime," writes Duane Dudek at the Journal Sentinel, who sounds otherwise underwhelmed.
• Scene to remember: The comedy "can be deliciously brutal—an extended sequence in which Jordan and Donnie are so blitzed on Quaaludes that they can barely move is sure to join Mr. Scorsese’s greatest-hits reel—but the movie laughs with Jordan as well as at him," writes AO Scott at the New York Times.

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