Directed by: Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie
Starring: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Idina Menzel, Eric Bogosian, Kevin Garnett, LaKeith Stanfield, Judd Hirsch
Uncut Gems is relentless; a pressure cooker of a movie bearing down on the hapless, luckless Howard Ratner (Sandler), a degenerate gambler with a shady jewelry shop in New York's Diamond District. Howard owes $100,000 in gambling debts to his brother-in-law Arno (Bogosian), who is not shy about using goons to rough up Howard, and the deadline is fast approaching to pay or be killed. He juggles so many personal and professional balls in the air that, if one of Arno's thugs don't kill him, a heart attack might. When we first meet Howard, after the excavation of a rare uncut diamond in Ethiopia which will soon finds its way into Howard's possession, he is undergoing a colonoscopy. As if this guy didn't have enough to worry about.
Howard's problems are all his own doing; a byproduct of his self-destructive nature. He is not happy unless he's hustling someone or trying to worm his way out of a jam. He lives for the adrenaline and stress of having to solve one escalating issue after another. He barely has time to sit down, let alone enjoy his daughter's recital. Howard is stretched so thin he is about to snap, with a family in a posh house and a mistress put up in a Manhattan apartment. His wife Dinah (Menzel) can't even look at him anymore, and the two are waiting until after Passover to announce their divorce to the kids. Arno and the thugs are forever lurking. Howard believes the uncut diamond is his ticket to paying off his debt and living a life of relaxation and luxury (ha ha). He values its worth at about three million, the auction house he consigns it to has a much lower evaluation.
Taking place in 2012, with the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers looming as the source of Howard's parlays and dangerous bets, Celtic Kevin Garnett (playing himself) has a key role in the events concerning the uncut gem. For a while there, Kevin is sucked into Howard's vortex of swindling, double talk, and shadiness. The closest thing Howard has to a genuine relationship is with Julia (Fox), his mistress/employee who, gulp, may even love Howard. Or is she trying to stake her own claim should his desperate plans bear fruit?
We all know Adam Sandler's sketchy filmography. He has made some awful comedies, some funny ones, and showed the world his dramatic acting chops in Punch Drunk Love (2003). But Sandler was born for this role. He sure looks like Adam Sandler, but we forget it is him. His transformation into Howard is seamless. The most astounding trick Sandler is able to pull off in this tense, high-wire performance, is managing to evoke sympathy from the audience. Sure, he is digging his own grave, but do we root for him to lie in it? No, because we pity the poor schmuck.
His insatiable need for more is going to kill him, and we can't look away.
Josh and Benny Safdie announce their arrival as top flight filmmakers here. Their previous crime caper, Good Time (2017) started out with the same full throttle approach only to be sidetracked by a middle which screeches everything to a halt. The Safdie Brothers keep their foot on the accelerator in Uncut Gems, and the experience is riveting, with a flawed, troubled man at its center who lacks the insight into his own sickness to stop himself from sealing his fate.
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