I saw it last night and I don't think the theatre was filled with Wall Street Dudes and it was still a pretty happy environment. I personally haven't laughed like that in a while. The entire movie was highly absurd, obscene, and entertaining. Was it fucked up? Of course. Was it tragic? Yes. But it played more like a ridiculous and intense comedy drama than your typical emotionally charged drama.

The author of this piece fails to realize is that Scorsese didn't try to portray him as a villain. He portrayed him like the man he saw himself. The books he's written are first person narratives of a highly exuberant and fucked up life. He downplays the shit he does and lingers on the excessive amounts of hookers, booze, and cocaine. He is obviously a man who prefers to remember the good times and ignore the bad. The coke and quaaludes probably have a lot to do with this as well. When you are that high, each day is it's own and you are pushing through and drowning out the emotions until you pop the next pill or snort the next line. When you realize that he's spent a majority of his life high on one substance or another, you realize that the narrative told in this is highly subjective.

He downplays the tragedies that occur throughout the movie in one or two straight faced lines. The voiceovers are filled with good stories with a brief tragic moment that are read like a inconsequential detail: "and then he died but what are you going to do." Cut. Next scene.

Telling the story in any other way wouldn't have worked. You can't explore this narrative from the third person objectively because the story would be missing 90% of the reality of the situation. Further, you would never get the same level of insight into such a depraved lifestyle. It's a film that leaves you laughing and genuinely entertained and the depravity of the story creeps in later.