The Oscar 2014 Predictions has a very familiar name for Best Director. Martin Scorsese is no stranger to controversy. He is often nominated but the Academy hesitates to give him all the marbles due to his excessive filmmaking approach.

Scorsese makes it a point to leave an impression (often a negative one) on the viewer, and he employs excess and debauchery to achieve this. "The Wolf of Wall Street" is no exception. In fact, it is probably the epitome of all things Scorsese.

He does not always get positive reviews. In the recent screening for the AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or simply The Academy) he was met with a very 'direct' form of criticism. From actress Hope Holiday's Facebook post (quoted verbatim by The Wrap): "..last night was torture at the Academy--"The Wolf Of Wall Street"---three hours of torture--same disgusting crap over and over again---after the film they had a discussion which a lot of us did not stay for--the elevator doors opened and Leonardo D. Martin S. and a few others got out then a screen writer ran over to them and started screaming--shame on you --disgusting-"

While the Academy has recognized the artists who break new ground, has Scorsese gone too far with TWOWS?

From Deadline, let the legend answer for himself:

"What are your rules for depicting loathsome people onscreen?
SCORSESE: I don't know if I'd call them rules. I grew up in an area where as far as I knew, this was the world. It was an area in Manhattan, an old, old fashioned culture. An evil culture. I knew them first as human beings. Some were nice to children and other people around them, and would help other families. Some were not nice at all. Later on, I discovered a number of them were not wholesome characters, to say the least. To say the least. Yet, I also knew some of them were genuinely good people forced by circumstance or their own human weakness into a life of doing bad things. But they were basically decent people. It happens. People do it in war, people do it in business. People do it in love. This is about human weakness. If we don't recognize it, if we don't say it exists, it's not going to go away. The hell with us, we're old, but what about the young ones. What are we going to do, put some political correct ribbon over it? No. There is evil in us."

"You're 71, your films withstand the test of time, you've got a little one running around. How do you summon anger and intensity with all these nice things swirling around you?
SCORSESE: Because, it's not fair. There has to be something that can be determined as fair business code. Business is not just buying and selling. It's how you treat people. I may treat people terribly, I don't know. Maybe in some cases I do know. I can't judge that. But when you say I don't judge the characters, what I meant when I said that to Leo is, the author's stance on the character is obvious here, so we're taken off the hook. We didn't need to put an outsider's perspective on it. We had to go all the way, be forced to look at yourself. Times in my life, were my acts moral or immoral? Was I right or wrong? Did I do even worse than he does? All I can show is what he does, and I do not like it. I do not like it. I'm furious with it. But, there are still some people I grew up with, they are the most charming people you've ever met. You would not want to be with them, though."

 "It is notable that you resisted wrapping this in a bright, shiny moralistic package.
SCORSESE: It wouldn't mean anything. People would accept it and forget about it. You see that on television, like every two seconds. It no longer means something. I felt here that if we were going to try and say it, let's do it, full out. Be as open about it as possible."