Adam Sandler is said to be very stiff to miss an Academy Award nomination for Uncut Gems, and after literally months of speculation as to when Australia would get this flick, Netflix has finally released it to us. Adam Sandler is Howard Ratner, a top-end jewel salesman with a terrible gambling addiction, in Josh and Benny Safdie’s Uncut Gems. Howard owes money all over town, often borrowing more money that should get himself out of debt, only to reinvest it in the next sure thing. Howard has been able to procure a multicoloured opal, which he means to auction for a million dollars and solve all his problems in one fell swoop, but Boston Celtics basketballer Kevin Garnett (played by himself) is keenly eyeing it off, and Howard faces unfriendly foe at every turn.
I wasn’t enjoying this movie for the first twenty minutes, but once I figured out what the movie wanted to show me, I was in. I liken it to The Big Lebowski, where the overarching mood created by the movie is more to the point than the actual dramatic events taking place. The vibe is intensity – the score plays over the top of the characters almost constantly, while they yell over each other, engaging in multiple conversations at once. Any break in noise is a sanctuary where you can refocus your breathing and prepare to go again. For the characters in this movie, there are no consequences, only the next move. As good as the score is, I was happiest when it went away because I feel like the character’s testosterone-fuelled banter was effective enough, and I liked to be able to listen in to everything that these characters were saying. The movie drops you in to Howard’s life, and it took me a while to figure out how everyone was connected and who to care about; I would like to watch Uncut Gems again now that I’m in sync with Howard’s chaotic life, but this is a fast and frenetic movie, and I think catching up on how Howard lives his life is half the battle.
Then, eventually, with the loan sharks closing in on his shop, Howard decides to make another bet. From this point on Uncut Gems has more tension than some of the best horror movies. The movie has conditioned us to think something will go wrong for Howard, but you don’t know what. Throughout the movie, Howard is repetitively told he is a fool, who’s biggest enemy is himself, and at any time his rollercoaster his going to crash into a brick wall. I thought of this movie like playing one of those cheap mini plastic pinball games you get as an amusement park prize, where you’ve got to shoot the small metal balls onto the plastic ledges for points, and you risk knocking one of them out by moving the game as you try to get the next ball on – this movie is as anxious as playing one of those games, with a time-limit and for your life. I thought Howard’s hot knucklehead of a girlfriend Julia (Julia Fox) was going to lose the betting slip for sure! Uncut Gems is absolutely thrilling; I was squirming in my seat the entire last half hour; from the point where Howard’s father-in-law Gooey (Judd Hirsh) is jacking up the price at the auction really.
Adam Sandler is fantastic in his movie; we all know he can act when he wants to, with previous serious roles in The Meyerowitz Stories and Reign Over Me – Sandler does that much yelling in this movie though, that it’s probably his characters in Happy Gilmore and Big Daddy that he’s drawing on for this experience. Sandler is the perfect guy to play Howard, because even when he’s playing an asshole, there’s always something about him that makes you want to root for him. All the actors are good, without the movie going out of its way to particularly focus on any of them. I was genuinely upset when Arno (Eric Bogosian) met his end, which is surprising, considering he’s the main antagonist for the majority of the movie – he does manage to convey a sympathy for Howard and his betting compulsion though, albeit whilst wanting to throttle him. Judd Hirsh is great as Howard’s father-in-law, as is Keith William Richards, as an angry grunt required to get money for Arno, and Lakeith Stanfield might be at the best I’ve ever seen him, as the guy who brings high level customers into Howard’s shop to buy riches. This movie is also a good advocate of how exciting the NBA can be – not knowing how Kevin Garnett’s real basketball game is going to turn out is a big element of this movie.
It’s incredibly disheartening that Uncut Gems has not been recognised as one of the best movies of 2019 by the Academy; a high-anxiety fuelled thriller with the most exciting basketball since Space Jam. This is an unconventional movie with a great cohesion. Even the Ethiopian miners and Asian businessmen are bickering at the very beginning, and its only really Howard’s wife, Dinah (Idina Menzel) that offers any solace from the hustle and bustle of Howard’s high-octane existence. I’ve seen movies with a similar style to this before, but none as effective or powerful. Uncut Gems is a rush; rush to see it.
4.5
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