Film

The Wolf of Wall Street

Name: The Wolf of Wall Street
Genre: Crime, Drama, Comedy
Released: 2013
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler

Scorsese's three-hour sugar rush through the life of Jordan Belfort, penny-stock con man turned yacht-sinking excess machine. It's a comedy that dares you to laugh at monstrous behaviour, narrated by a man who never once apologises. Dazzling, exhausting, deliberately implicating you in the fun — this is for people who like their morality tales delivered with a fire hose of drugs and money.

TMDb rating

4.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy big, brash satire that gleefully lets its amoral hero charm and repel you in the same breath, with fast-talking set pieces and a restless, almost manic energy.

Skip it if you tire of three-hour excess, and of watching a lot of money, drugs and bad behaviour pile up without much of a brake on it; the satire can feel like it is enjoying the very thing it mocks.

What it asks of you: It runs close to three hours and rarely slows, so you need stamina for its nonstop noise, and a readiness to sit with characters you are not meant to like.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

GoodFellas1990

The template Scorsese built Wolf on: the same seductive voiceover, the same rise-then-ruin structure, the same refusal to let you feel superior to the guys enjoying themselves.

But If you've seen it a dozen times already, the beats will feel very familiar rather than fresh.

The Big Short2015

Same era, same Wall Street rot, but told from the outsiders who saw the crash coming and bet against everyone else's stupidity. Funnier about finance than you'd expect.

But The fourth-wall-breaking explainers can feel like a lecture wearing a comedy costume.

Boiler Room2000

A scrappier, more claustrophobic look at exactly the pump-and-dump world Belfort ran, with young men chasing Gordon Gekko cosplay in a strip-mall office.

But Lower budget, lower stakes — it's the minor-league version and looks it next to Scorsese's polish.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Wolf of Wall Street

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Sweet Smell of Success1957

Same trick as Wolf: an unreliable, magnetic narrator who makes moral rot look like fun, proving Scorsese didn't invent the formula, he inherited it.

A black-and-white noir about a slick, amoral publicist who talks his way through Manhattan destroying people for profit — pure charisma weaponised, decades before Belfort.

But Slower, quieter, no drugs or parties — it seduces through dialogue and shadow, not spectacle.

Catch Me If You Can2002

DiCaprio again, playing another charming con artist who talks his way into rooms he shouldn't be in — but here the tone is warmer, almost tender.

But It's a much gentler film; if you want the chaos and cocaine, this will feel tame.

American Psycho2000

Wall Street excess curdled into full satire-horror, with a narrator even more untrustworthy than Belfort and a finance-bro culture skewered to the bone.

But Darker and stranger — the humour is bone-dry rather than the raucous party you got from Wolf.

Wall Street1987

The original 'greed is good' fever dream, and the direct ancestor of every finance-bro morality tale since, including the one you just watched.

But Dated in style and pacing — this is 80s power-suit cinema, not modern maximalism.

Blow Out1981

Swap stocks for cocaine and you get the same rise-fall-excess arc, with Johnny Depp doing his own charismatic-narrator-you-shouldn't-root-for routine.

But It leans more melodramatic and less funny — the comedy engine that powers Wolf is largely absent.

War Dogs2016

Two guys stumble into a massive, absurd government arms-dealing scheme and get drunk on their own success — same comic tone, smaller scale, same eventual reckoning.

But It's a lighter, thinner film that never quite earns the moral weight it reaches for at the end.

Molly's Game2017

A high-stakes underworld built on charisma and self-mythologising narration, this time from the other side of the table — the woman running the game, not playing it.

But Sorkin's rapid-fire dialogue style is a very different rhythm from Scorsese's freewheeling chaos.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room2005

Strips away the fictional gloss to show the actual mechanics of the con Wolf dramatises — same seduction, but you feel the wreckage instead of laughing at it.

The documentary version of the same drug — real executives, real charisma, real fraud, told with archive footage and interviews instead of a movie star's grin.

But No jokes, no glamour, and the human cost is treated with the weight it deserves rather than played for laughs.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room poster

Uncut Gems2019

Same engine as Belfort — addiction to the chase, not the money — but stripped of glamour and swapped into a jittery thriller register instead of a comedy.

Adam Sandler as a jeweller addicted to the adrenaline of risk, chasing one more score in a film that turns Belfort's hunger into a two-hour panic attack.

But There's no party, no wealth porn, no release valve — it's relentless anxiety from start to finish.