Three problems with The Wolf of Wall Street

Granted that Martin Scorcese's The Wolf of Wall Street is based on a memoir and that at least some of the things depicted in this debauched film actually may have happened - although keep in mind that Grant Balfour's memoir is written by a pathological liar and an ace bullshit salesman - and also keep in mind that movies exaggerate everything, as they probably should, in the interest of spectacle and entertainment, there are still a several really troubling things about this movie. First of all, yes, maybe the sexism (as well as the subtle racism - see any black guys on the trading floor? only in the final sequence) is meant to depict a debauched mentality, there's still a somehow tacit assumption and acceptance of the fact that women are present on earth only to "service" men - maybe the guys saw it that way, sure, but there's not a moment in the whole film to call this world view into question - not a single prostitute who looks like a drug addict, who's angry and resentful about what's expected of her. Second, although the movie is about the crash and burn of a great penny-stock trader, his world gone up in drugs, booze, sex, and stupid excess - is that really the message that thousands, millions, of testosterone-addled guys take away from this? I'm afraid far too many would say: how did I miss out? It would all have been worth it! (Especially when Balfour walks with a light sentence and is rehabbed as "the world's greatest salesman.") Third, the movie seems to be an expose of all that's wrong with Wall Street - when it isn't so at all. This guy was a sleazeball from the start, who ripped people off far more cruelly than a guy with a gun at a convenience store, but got treated far, far better than the typical thug criminal. But he's not what brought the country to near ruin - it was the white-shoe guys with the MBAs at the big brokerage houses who hold that distinction. The Wolf of Wall Street is just a distraction, bread and circuses, to keep us from thinking the real, and far less "sexy" truth (although that's been treated well in other films such as Margin Call). All that said, this is Scorsese, so the film is diabolically watchable, filled with some amazingly complex scenes of excess, and a few of good, high drama - the best of all being Kyle Chandler (playing an FBI agent) about Balfour (Leo Decaprio)'s yacht. Once you start watching you won't be able to stop - but don't be suckered, either, into thinking this movie is important or profound or an expose. This is a sideshow.