I think that, as with Goodfellas, this film is largely a case of style over substance. However, in this case, the style isn't as charming or engaging.

While in Goodfellas the characters and the situations they find themselves in are amusing, they are also infused with an underlying sense of menace which serves to strengthen the comedy and enrich the experience; this is not the case here. In comparison, the characters feel toothless, juvenile, and while certainly flashy, their exploits ultimately feel tedious and insignificant.

I also feel that Goodfellas was a link in the evolution of a more grounded style of mob fiction, and later entrants Donnie Brasco and The Sopranos did a much better job of digging into the substance of the subject matter. It's more difficult to place The Wolf of Wall Street in the evolution of the finance/fraud genre. It hasn't taken a more grounded approach like Margin Call, nor has it explored the emotional and psychological effects of the space as did The Big Short. Instead, the film merely cranks up the sleaze factor as high as it can go.

It doesn't offer much food for thought, but it is hard to deny the sheer spectacle of it.