To me, there's always something a little exciting about going to the cinema in the lead up to the Oscars. I know that the Oscars aren't the be all and end of all of the film industry, but I do like that the hype around it encourages people to go and see movies that they may not necessarily go to normally.
The cinema was completely packed the night we went to see The Wolf of Wall Street, which I personally love and much prefer to an empty audience. The atmosphere is different, everyone is somehow more involved in the whole experience, and we all laugh out loud and at the end of this showing at least, there was even a round of applause.
One thing to bear in mind before you go and see this: don't be offended, take it with a pinch (or a handful) of salt, and reconcile with the fact that it's really not a cautionary tale, or something that leaves you with "and the moral of the story is…" - it will, however, leave you feeling dizzy and on a high, by default. And happy (with a little bit of dirty).
The thing to focus on here is not how accurate the plot is to the life of the real Jordan Belfort, or the apparent tactlessness with which some lines are created (I say apparent, because as an adult with a brain it doesn't take much to know when to forgive a tasteless joke), or how the antihero is glamourised beyond moral comprehension. It's cinema. It's Scorsese taking risks and being outrageous, in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way. It's the acting, the larger than life di Caprio drawing us into a person and a life that we're in equal parts disgusted and fascinated by.
Nothing in life can be loved by everyone, but this was definitely loved by me.