Uncut GemsMoney makes monsters of us all. Uncut Gems is a neo-noir crime thriller set in 2012, and is about Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a gambling addict and jeweler who is always chasing a bigger score. Howard's latest scheme is to entice then Celtics power forward, Kevin Garnett (played by himself) to bid on an uncut and rare Ethiopian "black opal" in an upcoming auction, so that Howard could (ostensibly) pay off his copious debts with this "big hit". But when Kevin and their mutual acquaintance, Demany (Lakeith Stanfield), fail to return the gem at the appointed time, Howard is left scrambling to evade an increasingly impatient crew of debt collectors.
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Directed by the Safdie brothers (i.e. Josh and Benny Safdie), Uncut Gems excels at ratcheting up tension in the audience by pushing its protagonist through a series of events that spiral his life out of control. Howard is an unmitigated crook and con man, who is not above exploiting his friends, coworkers, and family as he glides from hustle to hustle. He knows when it behooves him to play submissive, and appears to be constantly deescalating confrontations in the first act of Uncut Gems, debasing himself to thugs and hoodlums. He is always in a state of movement--like a shark--with momentum akin to a daredevil race through his increasingly risky ventures. The speed of the film adds a visceral layer of tension--that everything can (and probably should) blow up at any point. In this, Uncut Gems resembles the high-stakes action of William Friedkin's own neo-noir crime thriller, To Live and Die in L.A. Short of the prologue that establishes the origin of the Ethiopian opal--and hardly even here--there isn't a moment of rest or calm in Uncut Gems, as if daring its audience to see just how far Howard will go in his quest to sate his unvarnished greed.
Virtually everything about Howard is unctuous; he is an absolute sleaze. His wife, Dinah (Idina Menzel), knows that he's been having an affair with his employee, Julia (Julia Fox), and the married couple plan to announce their divorce to their three children after Passover. What little time he does spend with his children reveals him to be an overgrown man child, even encouraging his eldest son, Eddie (Jonathan Aranbayev), to gamble and swear like he does. Before Howard is even introduced, he has managed to antagonize a vast swath of people in and around the "Diamond District" of New York City, including his brother-in-law, Arno (Eric Bogosian), to whom he apparently owes a long overdue debt. Arno sends a pair of aggressive collectors--Phil (Keith Williams Richards) and Nico (Tommy Kominik)--to intimidate Howard, who frequently has the opportunity to turn over the money he owes, but consistently opts to use it to gamble instead.
Howard is unwilling to own up to his ignorance and arrogance. When things don't work out for Howard, he cries like a baby, blaming fate for dealing him a crummy hand. In this, he recalls the hapless and irresponsible Jerry Lundegaard from Fargo--a fellow narcissist who is convinced that he is always the victim, and is always chasing a deal too good to be true. He is obsessed with money not for what it can buy him, but for the mere achievement of acquiring it. His pursuit of it becomes a justification to get away with increasingly egregious displays of recklessness. Take when Kevin Garnett visits his store and asks to borrow the opal for good luck in his next game, while leaving Howard with his championship ring as collateral. What does Howard do? He goes right over to the pawn shop to get a loan for it. And what does he do with this money? Pay Arno? No; he adds to his existing "parlay" on Garnett in a risky bet that is in all likelihood going to leave him unable to pay back the pawnbroker so that he can return Kevin's ring. Howard doesn't see the greater value of the ring; all he sees is gemstones and a quick way to make some easy money. (His pawning of it echoes a similar scene in Raging Bull when Jake LaMotta tries to hock the gemstones from his championship belt, only to discover that he would've gotten more if he left it intact.) When Demany strings Howard along over returning the opal, Howard pursues him like a pit bull, furiously hounding his fellow rogue with the same vicious tenacity as Phil and Nico have done to him. But Howard is a hypocrite (in addition to his myriad other faults); he doesn't like it when he's hustled, but he's almost always hustling someone else. And not just pawning their property, but compelling people like his father-in-law, Gooey (Judd Hirsch), to try to outbid Kevin Garnett in an auction just to drive up the selling price of the opal.
Howard's life is a raging typhoon. Like with the Safdie brothers' earlier film, Good Time, Uncut Gems depicts a New York City where corruption and vice are an intrinsic part of life. Adam Sandler gives a tour-de-force performance as Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems; watching him become increasingly unhinged and manic recalls Al Pacino's performance as Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon. This NYC looks like a true "concrete jungle", where raw, primal energies rise to the surface. The city has a pulse that gives it a brutal life of its own, where decency is a liability to be exploited by the likes of Howard. Background conversations come through as a susurrus of profanity and slang, oddly recalling the ambient dialogue of Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs Miller. When Uncut Gems nears its climax, a pulsing percussion reminiscent of Akira emerges on the musical score, contributing yet another layer of anxiety and dread to this urban setting. Uncut Gems is co-produced by Martin Scorsese, and shares obvious similarities to his early films depicting street life. Howard is cut from the same cloth as Johnny Boy from Scorsese's Mean Streets; both men are shamelessly unconcerned about who they hurt in their pursuit for fun and profit, even if they appear contrite when it suits them. Howard is a rare protagonist who manages to be uniformly loathsome, yet also pitiful. Episodes of chaos come rapid fire in Uncut Gems, leaving the audience torn between rooting for this scumbag or waiting to see him get his comeuppance. Nothing seems to go right for Howard, but considering the dynamite he plays with so casually, perhaps nothing should.
Recommended for: Fans of a gritty and taut crime thriller that constantly provokes the audience into asking themselves, "did he actually just do that?" or "is he really that stupid?" without alienating them from an absolute fireworks show of a tightly wound plot. Uncut Gems is a tense film filled with such strong language--while portraying the excesses of sex, drug abuse, and violence with casual frequency--that it is only appropriate for adults.
Virtually everything about Howard is unctuous; he is an absolute sleaze. His wife, Dinah (Idina Menzel), knows that he's been having an affair with his employee, Julia (Julia Fox), and the married couple plan to announce their divorce to their three children after Passover. What little time he does spend with his children reveals him to be an overgrown man child, even encouraging his eldest son, Eddie (Jonathan Aranbayev), to gamble and swear like he does. Before Howard is even introduced, he has managed to antagonize a vast swath of people in and around the "Diamond District" of New York City, including his brother-in-law, Arno (Eric Bogosian), to whom he apparently owes a long overdue debt. Arno sends a pair of aggressive collectors--Phil (Keith Williams Richards) and Nico (Tommy Kominik)--to intimidate Howard, who frequently has the opportunity to turn over the money he owes, but consistently opts to use it to gamble instead.
Howard is unwilling to own up to his ignorance and arrogance. When things don't work out for Howard, he cries like a baby, blaming fate for dealing him a crummy hand. In this, he recalls the hapless and irresponsible Jerry Lundegaard from Fargo--a fellow narcissist who is convinced that he is always the victim, and is always chasing a deal too good to be true. He is obsessed with money not for what it can buy him, but for the mere achievement of acquiring it. His pursuit of it becomes a justification to get away with increasingly egregious displays of recklessness. Take when Kevin Garnett visits his store and asks to borrow the opal for good luck in his next game, while leaving Howard with his championship ring as collateral. What does Howard do? He goes right over to the pawn shop to get a loan for it. And what does he do with this money? Pay Arno? No; he adds to his existing "parlay" on Garnett in a risky bet that is in all likelihood going to leave him unable to pay back the pawnbroker so that he can return Kevin's ring. Howard doesn't see the greater value of the ring; all he sees is gemstones and a quick way to make some easy money. (His pawning of it echoes a similar scene in Raging Bull when Jake LaMotta tries to hock the gemstones from his championship belt, only to discover that he would've gotten more if he left it intact.) When Demany strings Howard along over returning the opal, Howard pursues him like a pit bull, furiously hounding his fellow rogue with the same vicious tenacity as Phil and Nico have done to him. But Howard is a hypocrite (in addition to his myriad other faults); he doesn't like it when he's hustled, but he's almost always hustling someone else. And not just pawning their property, but compelling people like his father-in-law, Gooey (Judd Hirsch), to try to outbid Kevin Garnett in an auction just to drive up the selling price of the opal.
Howard's life is a raging typhoon. Like with the Safdie brothers' earlier film, Good Time, Uncut Gems depicts a New York City where corruption and vice are an intrinsic part of life. Adam Sandler gives a tour-de-force performance as Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems; watching him become increasingly unhinged and manic recalls Al Pacino's performance as Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon. This NYC looks like a true "concrete jungle", where raw, primal energies rise to the surface. The city has a pulse that gives it a brutal life of its own, where decency is a liability to be exploited by the likes of Howard. Background conversations come through as a susurrus of profanity and slang, oddly recalling the ambient dialogue of Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs Miller. When Uncut Gems nears its climax, a pulsing percussion reminiscent of Akira emerges on the musical score, contributing yet another layer of anxiety and dread to this urban setting. Uncut Gems is co-produced by Martin Scorsese, and shares obvious similarities to his early films depicting street life. Howard is cut from the same cloth as Johnny Boy from Scorsese's Mean Streets; both men are shamelessly unconcerned about who they hurt in their pursuit for fun and profit, even if they appear contrite when it suits them. Howard is a rare protagonist who manages to be uniformly loathsome, yet also pitiful. Episodes of chaos come rapid fire in Uncut Gems, leaving the audience torn between rooting for this scumbag or waiting to see him get his comeuppance. Nothing seems to go right for Howard, but considering the dynamite he plays with so casually, perhaps nothing should.
Recommended for: Fans of a gritty and taut crime thriller that constantly provokes the audience into asking themselves, "did he actually just do that?" or "is he really that stupid?" without alienating them from an absolute fireworks show of a tightly wound plot. Uncut Gems is a tense film filled with such strong language--while portraying the excesses of sex, drug abuse, and violence with casual frequency--that it is only appropriate for adults.