A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider, whom takes the youth under his wing.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.2/10
IMDb: 7.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.61/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 78%
Metacritic: 56
TMDB: 7.2/10
Director
Oliver Stone
Production
20th Century Fox, Pressman Film
Cast
Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, Daryl Hannah, John C. McGinley, Hal Holbrook, Sean Young, Terence Stamp, James Spader, Lauren Tom, Chuck Pfeiffer, Tamara Tunie, Franklin Cover, James Karen, Saul Rubinek, Leslie Lyles, Faith Geer, Frank Adonis, John Capodice, Suzen Murakoshi
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, sharply acted 1980s finance drama with real cultural staying power. It’s more entertaining and quotable than subtle, but Michael Douglas gives it a magnetic center and Oliver Stone’s moral outrage still lands as a period snapshot of greed, ambition, and status worship.
Best for
Viewers who like slick 80s dramas with a big performance at the center
People interested in finance, corporate power, or moral decline stories
Fans of movies that are both entertaining and culturally revealing
Anyone curious about one of the defining yuppie-era films
Skip if
You want a nuanced or understated critique of capitalism
You’re impatient with heavy-handed moralizing
You prefer action-driven crime films over talky power plays
You dislike glossy 80s style and corporate-world jargon
Overview
Wall Street works best as a time capsule of 1980s ambition: the suits, the swagger, the hair, the money, and the intoxicating belief that winning is its own morality. It’s less a precise anatomy of finance than a vivid portrait of appetite, seduction, and self-justification. That makes it feel both dated and weirdly current.
Worth noting
Michael Douglas is the engine. He turns Gordon Gekko into a charismatic predator who is fun to watch even when the movie is warning you not to admire him. Charlie Sheen gives the story a useful point of entry as the hungry young broker who mistakes access for wisdom, while the film’s polished surface keeps the whole thing moving like a sales pitch.
Bottom line
Oliver Stone is not subtle, and the movie eventually says exactly what it means to say. But the bluntness is part of its appeal: Wall Street is a sleek morality play that understands how seductive corruption can look from the inside. It’s not the most sophisticated film about money, but it remains one of the most recognizable.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Will Sloan (3.5★) · 1220 likes
"Hi, I'm gay actor Michael Douglas."
Michelle Parsons (4★) · 1190 likes
I’m curious as to what the hair gel budget was for this movie.
Chris Feil (3★) · 883 likes
Very upsetting interior design
Ethan Colburn (3.5★) · 628 likes
A movie in which cocaine is surprisingly done only once.
The first hour is really fun, and what is remembered about this movie. Watching Bud Fox get swept up in this world, it all feels like a fever dream. It's easy to see why Oliver Stone was such a sensation in the 80s. What he was saying might seem conventional now, but he was taking on established institutions in a flashy way, appealing to the general public.
I was all… more
solharv · 572 likes
I still don’t understand what people on Wall Street actually do
2013 · Crime, Drama, Comedy · 3h · R · Curator 7.9/10 (5.7M ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, AMC+, Philo, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A louder, more manic cousin about excess, charisma, and self-destruction in the money world.
1993 · Drama, Mystery, Thriller · 2h 34m · R · Curator 4.3/10 (284.1K ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus
A glossy corporate thriller where success comes with a sinister moral price.