The Wolf of Wall Street is a slick, excessive and rollicking blast of fun

Greed is nothing new to the movie-going public, nor is excess or the delighting in the idea of an “anti-hero” or even a truly despicable person. But sometimes there’s more going on below the surface. For those not filthy, stinking rich, it’s easy to admire such lifestyles while at the same time severely judging them, deciding that we are far too moral and upright to sink so low. There’s a sort of inherent legitimacy to those coming from poorer backgrounds, like it or not — we tend to feel like success in such cases is more “earned,” because it was harder for the poor to become the rich. And honestly, it really is harder if you don’t have the help. But that said, it’s also easy to assume that just because someone comes from a less ostentatious lifestyle it means that they are a good person, and that the money or fame or whatever corrupted them. Sometimes they were corrupt the whole time.

The Wolf of Wall Street is the latest movie from 71-year-old director Martin Scorcese, who has a pretty unreasonably good track record of quality. He is reunited here with Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays Jordan Belfort, the titular “wolf” the movie is about, based on the autobiography of the same name. This isn’t a gangster movie, but it’s fast and quick, funny and profane, with a lot of sex and drugs. Jordan becomes a stockbroker on Wall Street in 1987 right before the stock market crash of that year, causing him to have to work for a lowly “penny stock” trading company. But he has a talent for selling trash and spouting lies, so he quickly forms his own company of oddballs, weirdos, and old friends. This is where the brilliantly bizarre Donnie comes in, played by Jonah Hill as the crazy man that becomes Jordan’s right hand guy. Jordan grows a company built on shady business practices that aren’t borderline illegal, they are just plain illegal, but he makes millions doing it. So obviously attention comes their way courtesy of an FBI agent played by Kyle Chandler.

The cast here is nonsensically good, from Rob Reiner as Jordan’s father trying to reign in his son’s excesses, Jean Dujardin as the shady but charismatic Swiss banker, to Margot Robbie as the beautiful girl Jordan leaves his wife for and promptly cheats on too. I don’t want to forget about Matthew McConaughey, who has a brief but very memorable few scenes as a man mentoring Jordan in how to do well in finance. The film looks great, edited briskly but hilariously, with a crisp and clean look. As for the lead actor, Leonardo DiCaprio is doing some of his best work in ages, and certainly this year (he was okay in The Great Gatsby, but this is so much better). DiCaprio shows off both amusingly wry lines, emotional outbursts, and some of the funniest physical comedy you’ll see all year. This movie is being classified as a comedy, and honestly, it really is one of the funniest movies of the year.

Yes, there’s a great deal of nudity and profanity here, but it never seems out of place (unless that sort of thing is too much for you, in which case I’d avoid any R-rated movie). There a few little tricks Scorcese plays on the audience which I didn’t expect, with a structure that surprises in some innovative ways. Is it one of the best movies of the year? Well … yeah, probably. It’s definitely one of the few that’s simultaneously fun but a little meaningful at the same time, instead of one or the other. Scorcese says he might retire after this one, and he’s certainly entitled after all he’d done … but selfishly, I kind of hope he has more in him.