Wall Street breeds some of the most corrupt and immoral individuals to walk the streets of New York. The story of coming up from nothing and making millions is an archetype ingrained in American Culture. Money allows you to live as extravagant of a lifestyle you are comfortable with, or uncomfortable with in the case of The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, a real Wall street success story played by Leonardo Dicaprio, who is about as moralless and corrupt as they come. “The Wolf of Wall Street” is a great cautionary tale that will captivate audiences and make them feel guilty about the attractive lifestyle Belfort lives, despite how devoid of morality it is.

Martin Scorsese is listed among the best for a reason, and his directing in this film is a reminder to everyone that he hasn’t missed a beat in the over 30 years of his filmmaking. His three hour long epic is gonna keep you in the seat for a while, but for good reason, because the journey of Belfort throughout his life as a wolf is engrossing and serves as a cautionary tale of what greed and power does to regular people. Belfort’s copious amounts of drug abuse provides a PSA on what happens when someone with an absolute disregard for moral activity comes across more money than he can spend.

The insight offered here into the world of fraud and greed that surround the wall street culture of young men trying to make it big. Belfort quickly amassed his fortune through the exploitation of “pennystocks” or stocks worth pennies apiece and sold in huge volumes. The sketchy part of this deal is that the brokers are making 50 percent commission on these sales as opposed to the regular five percent. Being the great salesman that Belfort is, he is able to convince people in huge volumes to give him thousands of dollars for worthless stocks, many of whom will never see their money back.

One of the more interesting focuses of the film is Belfort’s drug problem, which has its inception from the advice of his first boss Mark Hanna, played by Matthew McConaughey, who let’s him know that the only way to make it in this world is through cocaine. His advice surfaces and his problem truly begins when he smokes crack with his new assistant Donnie Azoff, played by Jonah Hill, an incredibly quirky and funny character whose ambiguous actions and slips of the tongue provide some of the best comedic relief in the film. Comedic relief is actually very prevalent on wall street, the antics of all the characters had me laughing throughout honestly this movie could be loosely called a comedy.

With a three hour runtime “The Wolf of Wall street” is something of a challenge to sit through, but a challenge well worth it as it is one of the most enjoyable movies released last year and prime contender for best picture. The movie takes a bit to pick up its pace but once it reaches its peak, there’s no slowing down and the absolutely deplorable acts of Belfort are displayed to the audience, and if you’re on the side of prudish there will be a lot in this film to offend you so watch with caution. I wouldn’t take my mother to see this with me, she would probably find my enjoyment of Belfort’s lifestyle deplorable, but what she doesn’t know can’t hurt her.