The takes that this was a celebration of wealth were bad takes; the take economy around it was a precursor to now, with a limited idea that art is either a moral judgment on bad people or a celebration of good ones; let someone tell a story that does not end in the usual formula; there is nothing normal about a film that starts in the third act of Goodfellas and stays there, where time and reality are hard to discern; Richard Corliss in Time asked why you would spend three hours with these people, which is called hiding your head in the sand about the parts of you that respond to them; liking to read about terrible people does not mean wanting to hang out with them.
The 2013 context: the start of the second Obama term, Breaking Bad culture, out of the financial crisis, a safer time to put a character like this on screen; some will always say fuck these guys; the Joker worry is that in ten years guys quote it as a way to live; if you don't like it fine, but saying such movies should not be made is pointless.
The runtime is proposed as having aged worst and disputed: the excess of the soundtrack, writing and camera demands a maximalist length; Thelma Schoonmaker reportedly could have gotten it shorter but did not want to cut the performances; the scene where Jonah and Bernthal get arrested is one a host has never liked, since it could be an aside, though it is how one of the real guys got arrested because Jonah's character combines several people, and another keeps it for the Nassau County police car he grew up seeing in a cop's household.
