The Wolf of Wall Street

       I thought I would give this film a shot on Netflix.  It is Martin Scorcese after all.

     Let me name the ways this movie disappoints.  A film about Wall Street so soon after the great recession might have alluded to the disaster, it might have made some observations about the destructive power of the financial industry, but Scorcese doesn't choose that path.  Ok then, we have a light comedy about Wall Street excess.  It runs three hours.  The main characters are shallow, greedy egotists. The few genuinely funny scenes, such as DiCaprio's drug-addled stockbroker crashing his private helicopter into his back yard, are swallowed whole in a pasty pudding of drugs, hookers and frat boy antics.  Relationships don't happen to these cartoon characters, even if it was based on a true story.

     I like a good story about excess, but there has to be a story, there has to be some character development.  DiCaprio's stockbroker is the same useless schmuck after a three hour recap of his debaucheries. There are moviegoers who are always excited to see a movie star snorting coke off a prostitute's ass, but it's old and it's weak.  And it's deeply offensive, circa 2014, to use hookers gratuitously when your film is about nothing.  If  you're going to perpetuate that stereotype, do it for a reason.