IN the aftermath of Black Monday, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) loses his job and is forced to sell penny stocks at a fly-by-night operation in Long Island.
Blessed with the gift of the gab, Jordan excels and decides to open his own firm, Stratton Oakmont, with salesman Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill).
The business goes from strength to strength and Jordan jettisons his wife Teresa (Cristin Milioti) to romance blonde bombshell Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie).
Meanwhile, the ‘work hard, play harder’ mantra of Stratton Oakmont attracts the attentions of tenacious FBI Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler), who resolves to bring down Jordan and his hedonistic inner circle.
The Wolf Of Wall Street is a lurid portrait of debauchery following the same misaligned moral compass as Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning 1987 drama Wall Street.
Greed isn’t just good, it’s a cornerstone of this gaudy, hallucinogenic American dream, allowing the unscrupulous to prey on the weak in order to finance flashy apartments, fast cars and copious amounts of nose candy.
It's hard to believe that 71-year-old Martin Scorsese is the ringmaster of this booze, sex, coke and testosterone-fuelled circus.
DAMON SMITH
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