Hi everyone!
We’re closing out the week with a doozy. Anyone who likes the Safdie Brothers knows that they can tell a hell of a story, set on the unforgiving streets of New York. In 2017, I took in their last two features, which include HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT, a heartbreaking, gutter noir look at addiction, and GOOD TIME, a pulse-pounding quest around the city starring Robert Pattinson. It was also their first collaboration with Oneohtrix Point Never, aka Daniel Lopatin, one of my favorite musicians. So, I was stupid excited to see today’s film, as long as my heart could take it.
Before the review, we’ll have a promo from our good friends at the Comics in Motion podcast. Every week, Dave and Chris look at a film which made its way from the comic book page to the silver screen, and sometimes even back again. They look at the lore, the rendition, and everything related, delivering a fun look at each film. You can find them on Twitter and Instagram @comicsinmotionp and on Facebook @ComicsInMotionPodcast. They were some of our biggest supporters last year, and we can’t thank them enough!
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Here we go!
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Today’s movie is UNCUT GEMS, the crime thriller directed by Benny and Josh Safdie, and written for the screen in collaboration with Ronald Bronstein. The film follows Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a jeweler in New York’s diamond market, who has run out of time to payback loan shark Arno (Eric Bogosian). While waiting for the payoff of a lifetime for a rare opal snuck into the country, Howard begins making a series of high stakes bets around town looking for the biggest score of his life.
No spoilers.
However, I am going to issue a content warning for gambling addicts out there. Gambling addicts may get very uncomfortable watching this film, mostly for its incredible portrayal of the rush. If you have a gambling addiction, please seek professional help.
The Safdie Brothers like to deal with flawed characters, specifically those who live in and around New York City. Each character might be flawed in different and unique ways, but one flaw they all share in common is that they end up being the cause for their own downfall. It’s clear to everyone else on screen and clear to the viewers in the seats, but never to the main characters portrayed by the Safdies.
Howard Ratner has this same flaw, a fact we could easily surmise from the trailer, but a point that is driven home when Howard is introduced, having just left one important appointment for another at his jewelry shop. Over the course of the next few scenes, we learn two very important points. First, Howard has an incredibly bad gambling problem, which is untampered despite owing a great deal of money to a loan shark. And second, this is Adam Sandler like you’ve never seen him before.
The real genius of UNCUT GEMS is Sandler’s casting. The Safdie Brothers have managed to craft a character that fits Sandler in a way that doesn’t make it feel like an Adam Sandler film. And you know what I mean by an Adam Sandler film – that particular brand of attention-seeking late-night comedy which made him famous on Saturday Night Live, made him successful in the transition to the silver screen, and exactly what is expected when producers engage Happy Madison Productions. Everyone either loves or hates these films, but that’s not what we have here today.
By contrast to the typical Adam Sandler film, Howard Ratner is the Star Trek mirror universe version of Adam Sandler, right down to the goatee. He even has a much darker profession that still employs his particular set of skills: grabbing and maintaining attention. By the end of Howard’s opening scenes, we’re ready for a very tense journey, one not unlike Voltaire’s Candide, as Ratner’s sheltered and privileged life is catching up with him. Also much like Candide, Howard is constantly rationalizing and re-rationalizing his actions, based on real and perceived score and riches, in a perfect depiction of the gambling addict trapped into the gambler’s fallacy.
Around Howard is a mixture of real-life and fictional characters. Kevin Garnett and The Weeknd play fictionalized versions of themselves, the former focused on acquiring the opal from Ratner, the latter being worked over for a few sales by Howard’s assistant/mistress Julia (Julia Fox). Julia Fox’s debut role is incredible, a role written for her by the Safdie Brothers as the film was being written and re-written over the last decade or so. LaKeith Stanfield is also great as Demany, who works as a jewelry consultant to bring in the big name clients to Howard, looking for a break into the jeweler’s world. Idina Menzel plays Howard’s wife, ready for a divorce, and the only one concerned about their children by all measures. There’s even a host of fun cameos for Ca$h Out, Pom Klementieff, Trinidad James, Tilda Swinton, Natasha Lyonne, and Josh Ostrovsky. Howard leaves a huge, disastrous wake throughout the film, especially as the stakes climb even higher.
And it’s a hell of a ride. The Safdie Brothers are the masters at maintaining tension, using a combination of long take scenes that maintain the tension, along with microphone dropping scenes that communicate a lot of information very quickly. Much like HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT and GOOD TIME, the subject matter contains a lot of explicit material, often without much warning, but always for great and useful effect. Incredible visuals are included that play with the refracted light within the gems, all driven by Daniel Lopatin’s excellent electronic score. It is a top notch film, with only a few moments throughout where the film felt fatigued, which matched up with Howard’s character, but not with the overall pacing. A very small complaint.
My last thought is that I sincerely hope this film begins to help redefine what is meant by an Adam Sandler film. I think we got a glimpse of what might be possible in 2017’s THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED), where Noah Baumbach was able to leverage Sandler’s strengths in a more dramatic fashion. He’s not the only independent film to take a crack at a dramatic Sandler, either. I actually wonder how many more films like this might have been possible if Paul Thomas Anderson’s PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002) starring Adam Sandler had turned out better. Based on his performance and framing in UNCUT GEMS, I have a feeling more filmmakers will be willing to take a shot.
UNCUT GEMS is a pulse-pounding, stress-inducing look at high stakes gambling addiction, New York’s diamond market, and the lies we tell ourselves about the future to justify our present. Adam Sandler is incredible as Howard Ratner, proving he has the range outside of popular expectations, and hopefully the first of many more dramatic roles. Fans of the Safdie Brothers will definitely check out this film. Adam Sandler fans should be ready for a much darker role, dealing with mature subject material, but will definitely appreciate his work regardless. Definitely recommended for all New York street-level crime fans!
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% (CERTIFIED FRESH)
Metacritic: 89 (MUST SEE)
One Movie Punch: 9.5/10
UNCUT GEMS (2019) is rated R and is currently playing in theaters.
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