Terence Winter lets greedy, dangerous men explain themselves, and makes their explanations funny enough to keep us listening. We rate his crime writing highly, though he can give their appetites more attention than the people living with them.
Fi1m perspective
Jordan Belfort talks as though his appetites require no explanation in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Terence Winter's screenplay gives Leonardo DiCaprio a man who can be compelling company without becoming likeable. We laughed at the casualness of that talk: nobody seems to think their behaviour calls for an apology. Winter is a fine writer of people who have made themselves comfortable with doing harm. His trouble is knowing when we have spent enough time with them.
An early writing credit on Xena: Warrior Princess (1995) gives little warning of the crime dramas that followed. Winter joined The Sopranos (1999) in its second season, in 2000, and wrote or co-wrote 25 episodes. That series remains our strongest recommendation among his credits, with its frightening characters made painfully recognisable and often funny. His ear for untidy, believable speech fits that company.
With Boardwalk Empire (2010), which he created, Winter had more responsibility for the whole. Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson approaches Prohibition in Atlantic City as a chance to make money, a premise well suited to Winter's interest in people who can justify anything to themselves. Martin Scorsese directed the first episode, while the writing team included Howard Korder and Dennis Lehane. We recommend staying with it, though the first season takes too long arranging its gangsters and officials. The acting helps; the thin writing for women other than Margaret does not.
Scorsese and Winter find a freer comic rhythm in The Wolf of Wall Street, with dialogue that gives the actors more to do than advertise wickedness. Schoonmaker's editing keeps individual scenes moving even when the screenplay repeats itself. Sex, drugs and extravagance stop telling us anything new about Belfort well before the film stops showing them. Margot Robbie gives Naomi Lapaglia enough force to make the lack of room for her especially frustrating.
Bob Marley: One Love (2024) shows what happens when the writing will not get close enough to its subject. Winter shares screenplay credit with Frank E. Flowers, Zach Baylin and director Reinaldo Marcus Green, so the failure is not his alone. The film lists achievements and keeps Marley out of reach, despite Kingsley Ben-Adir's command of the walk, voice and stage. Start with The Wolf of Wall Street, provided three hours of Belfort is an evening you are prepared to give him.
Biography
Terence Winter is an American writer and producer of television and film. He joined the writing staff of the HBO series The Sopranos for its second season in 2000 and remained through the sixth and final season in 2007, writing or co-writing 25 episodes; he also directed the episode "Walk Like a Man".
Winter created, wrote and executive produced the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014). He wrote the screenplay for Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. His other credits include the screenplay for Bob Marley: One Love (2024) and writing for Tulsa King (2022).
Earlier in his career he wrote for series including Xena: Warrior Princess (1995) and Sister, Sister (1994).
