Direction: Josh and Benny Safdie
Country: USA
Uncut Gems generates a propulsive energy throughout that will make you invigorated. Kinetically shot and packed with restless, breathtaking sequences, the film is anything you’ve seen before. It’s also a showcase for Adam Sandler, who squeezing a lot out of the narrative, delivers his most dazzling performance since Punch Drunk Love.
Steeped in a busy, high-end New York atmosphere, the film marks another well-told chapter in the admirable filmography of the Safdie Brothers, authors of excellent indies about never-to-be-forgotten people - Daddy Longlegs (2009), Heaven Knows What (2014), and Good Time (2017). Once again, they teamed up with Ronald Bronstein for a brilliant screenplay.
The story centers on Howard Ratner (Sandler), a Jewish-American jewelry store owner whose hectic life feels like riding an ultra-rapid rollercoaster. Not even us, the viewers, have time to breathe when peeking at Howard’s tense affairs and inextricable predicaments. Because of his gambling addiction, rough debt collectors, who work for loan sharks, frequently stop by his office and give him a hard time. Moreover, most of his employees are unsatisfied for having to deal with his financial imbroglios on a daily basis; his wife, Dinah (Idina Menzel), sees him as an irresponsible imbecile, while his lover and store collaborator, Julia (Julia Fox), was found on the verge of cheating on him with the R&B singer The Weekend (himself) at the latter’s party. On top of that, he embarks on a risky business with the NBA player Kevin Garnett (himself), who got obsessed with an uncut Ethiopian opal.
Bursting with inventiveness and vibrancy, Uncut Gems is simultaneously nerve, guts, passion, and brain. A triumphant exercise in cinematic storytelling, stirred by the main character’s mercurial ups and downs. Very few recent films can boast this intensity, humor, and unpredictability. And the Safdies attained glory.
