13 Movie Protagonists You're Desperate To See Lose

Martin Scorsese's glorious black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street takes a deep dive into the toxicity of Wall Street and tells the story of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), who founded the Stratton Oakmont firm - one which quickly became a hotbed of corruption, fraud and theft. 

The Wolf of Wall Street was sorely misunderstood by some reviewers, who accused it of glamorizing the appalling behaviour of its protagonist, when it's in fact doing the exact opposite.

While the film never explicitly critiques Belfort, that's mainly because the whole thing is told from his perspective - the perspective of a villain who firmly believes that he is the hero. To any outside observer, he's an immeasurably sad, debauched, selfish and pathetic criminal. 

DiCaprio's career-best performance superbly captures the dichotomy at the heart of this character. He makes Belfort a very charismatic figure, thus explaining why so many other investors are drawn to him, but also brings out what a man-child Belfort actually is, especially in his private moments. 

In the end, Belfort gets caught and he loses everything - his business, his wife, his child and his so-called best friend Donnie (Jonah Hill, who's also never been better) rats him out to the FBI without a second thought. 

All of this feels absolutely earned, so the film hardly glamorizes him in the slightest. Unfortunately, Belfort doesn't seem to have learned anything by the end, reaffirming him as one of the most unlikable film leads of the 2010s... but also one of the best.