Fucking Benihana.

Some initial rambling thoughts and notes for a future more coherent review:

-Jordan Belfort makes Calvin Candie look like a pleasant guy to be around.

-This film makes The Departed look like a Disney movie.

-"Two time Academy Award Nominee Jonah Hill"

-"That Rob Reiner guy should act more."

-Never thought I'd hear a Foo Fighters song in a Scorsese film, nevermind one that actually really fits.

-It'll be interesting to see how the mass public reacts to this film. During my free pre screening I would say about 15 people got up and left. Record for me is around 20 for Syriana, Zodiac, and The Tree of Life.

-It'll also be interesting to see mass groups of…

A sober man's study of an intoxicated one. Makes me want to prop Michael Bay in front of it, Clockwork Orange-style, and shout "This is how you do satire!" at deafening decibels. Truthfully, the peanut-brain would probably get off on it…which is how you do satire. Let the morons expose themselves, even as the viewers who fancy they're above it all (myself definitely included) quietly acknowledge the pleasure inherent—per George Carlin—in having gotten a ticket to the freak show. ("One of us, one of us…"—Marty knows what he's doing.)

This viewing I grooved even more on the aesthetic: The shifting aspect ratios (especially the final sequence that moves from 1.78 to 2.35 as Belfort leans vampirically toward his latest sucker);…

The Wolf of Wall Street is Martin Scorsese back to his confident best. At 71 he should be producing respectable work destined to please ageing Oscar voters (something perhaps like Hugo) but instead he’s making swaggering, debauched and sprawling epics about obscene levels of excess and one man’s fall from grace. This is Scorsese’s best work since Casino.

In three spritely and surprisingly brisk hours, Scorsese brings to life the true story of Jordan Belfort and his meteoric rise from penny stock huckster to Wall Street God. Belfort is Gordon Gekko turned up to eleven - a man powered by money and Quaaludes until the federal government brought him crashing to the ground. It’s a capitalist cautionary tale, albeit a…