While I do enjoy biographical movies, this is another one of those films that I feel would have been better had a more-believable-as-an-adult actor taken the lead role. This is a recurring theme for my reviews, but this movie would have been better had someone else been cast in the lead role of Jordan Belfort

Baby-face Leonardo DiCaprio strikes again and yes, I am overly critical of the dude but this is mainly because as I have mentioned many times before, he is not a believable authority figure. In this role, he takes on being Jordan Belfort, a real life stock-trading conman who ended up serving a mere 22 months in a plea deal where he sold out a great many of the people he was working with, including people who were primarily his underlings.

The movie presents the confidence man exploits of a stock trader duping people out of money to be a very rewarding and glamorous life and I am quite certain it is, right up until they get caught.

My problem isn't with the film, but it is with Leo playing the role of Jordan. Jordan in real life is an imposing figure full of charisma. When Leo has certain scenes where he is meant to be the big boss of the office, giving motivational speeches to an office full of adoring co-workers, he just seems like someone brought their teenage son to work that day and let him play with a microphone for a bit.

I suppose this is something that plagues Leo but for most men they would consider it a fantastic gift, to look perpetually young. I find that it takes away from his performances but I apparently am in the minority since it seems everyone flocks to see his films in droves and I have to admit, i am one of the attendees, although I am in the audience hoping that he has an appropriate role and I don't think this was one of them.

I know that the Academy feels differently than I do because Leo was nominated for best actor for this role and i thoroughly disagree. Not because he did a bad job- he didn't - it's just that I feel he was the wrong choice for the lead role in the first place.

One fantastic surprise that came out of this film was Johan Hill's portrayal of Donnie Azoff, who was Jordan Belfort's 2nd in command in a way. I feel as though Jonah is a fantastic actor with a wide array of skills as I find him compelling and accurate in both comedies and dramas. I think his best work is yet to come. He was also nominated, and unlike DiCaprio, I feel it was deserved. He didn't win either.

There was some controversy created by this film because Jordan was actually a terrible person who cheated loads of people out of hundreds of millions of dollars and critics felt as though the movie was actually focused on glorifying this rather than condemning it. I don't really care about that but it is a valid point. Mostly, for me, this movie fell short because once again, Leo is just not believable as an adult especially when he is trying to be intimidating. The movie is still pretty good and you can learn about things that actually happened - which is also a plus. However, you would have to pay me to get me to watch it again.

Professional critics rated this movie about 30% higher than the general public, which leads me to believe that the various academies are corrupt AF.