THE 1980s were a time of excess, epitomised by the mantra “greed is good”, which came from the film Wall Street.

The macho hard working, hard living mentality has never really left the city and you could argue the adrenaline fuelled risk taking that generated the money, is also what caused the big crashes, as well.

It was also a decade which saw some of the best work from director Martin Scorsese. He returns to that decade to explore the memoirs of Jordan Belfort – the man who became known as The Wolf of Wall Street.

Belfort (Leonardo Di Caprio) is a naïve young stockbroker, who joins the ranks of aspiring money makers in Wall Street in the late 1980’s.

He is quickly drawn into the debauched lifestyle of, while at the same time being something of a natural when it comes to selling stocks.

He finds himself out of work after the Black Monday crash of 1987 and joins a small firm who are selling tiny shares in fairly worthless companies and realises the potential of making a huge amount of money by selling them to the very rich – even though his actions are illegal.

He makes millions and his firm becomes legendary for its outrageous antics, with drugs and sex rife, even in the offices. All the while the FBI is closing in on him, and the bigger he rises, the further he will have to fall.

The Wolf of Wall Street is an excellent film, which comes with a lot of health warnings. It is graphic, full of expletives and doesn’t hold back in demonstrating the excess of its time.

While there has been a lot of criticism that the film seems to celebrate depravity – it’s actually a true story and told from the perspective of one man who shows no remorse for his behaviour and it leaves the audience to make up their own minds about him.

It has the feel of a bravura film made by an up and coming director wanting to make his mark rather than a 71 year old legend showing just why he is so good at what he does.

The film is dominated by a towering performance from Di Caprio – arguably the best of his career. However this is not a film for the faint-hearted or easily offended.

8/10

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