I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest.

Wolfie is my Safe Word edition.

It's January 1st, 2014 on today's show.

The Wolf of Wall Street is the new movie, of course, for Martin Scorsese.

It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a boiler room specialist.

We'll discuss it and its many attendant controversies.

And then a British TV import about midwives in the 1950s, it might improbably be the next

Downton Abbey. And finally, Brittany Spears is playing Vegas. We'll discuss exactly what that portends.

Joining me today is Slate's film critic Dana Stevens.

Hey, Dana.

Hey, Stephen.

And June Thomas, whose title is, what, Slate's culture critic?

And editor of Outward, yes.

Editor of Outward, of course.

Dana, of course, I'm going to start with you.

The Wolf of Wall Street is the new movie from Martin Scorsese.

It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a kind of pump and dump artist in the early 90s.

It's based on the true story of a man named Jordan Belfort, who is eventually taken,

it gives nothing a way to say, eventually taken down by the forces that be,

some combination of the FBI and the SEC.

It's a very long film, Dana. I'm curious to get a thumbs

up, thumbs down from you. But then after that, to move very quickly to the controversies surrounding

...