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UNCUT GEMS gets 9.5/10 A jewel of a film


Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie

Starring Adam Sandler, Lakeith Stanfield, Julia Fox, Idina Menzel, Eric Bogosian, Keith Williams Richards
Network: Netflix

9.5/10

This portrait of a gambling addict’s life doesn’t look hugely fun to be in, but it is hugely fun to watch. Uncut Gems is a ride through the seediest area of New York’s Diamond District, taking us through the highs and lows of a gambler’s world, perfectly replicating his anxieties and exhilarations. The central character is someone who wants to change for the better, but can’t, and it seems the world around him doesn’t want to either.

The film follows the incomprehensibly disastrous, yet perversely thrilling life of Howard (Adam Sandler), a jewellery store owner and hardcore gambler. Uncut Gems thoroughly embeds itself into his life so you can feel the intensity of it to such a palpable degree, you may just have a heart attack during the gruelling climax.

Howard is intensely foolish and competitive, following each bad idea/gamble with another one that’s even worse, building up his problems and debt. The loan sharks after him happen to be fronted by his brother-in-law Arno (Eric Bogosian), though his hesitance over this family relation encourages his henchman Phil (Keith Williams Richards) to take the lead and threaten Howard with zero hesitance and full ferocity.

Howard’s life is hardly anchored by Dinah (Idina Menzel), his ex-wife-to-be, nor his work mistress Julia (Julia Fox). His life is a dizzying whirlwind where even his down-times feature a lingering distress. Uncut Gems relentlessly portrays this with a sort of giddy delight, with a non-stop dialogue of insults, f-bombs, and plenty of shouting over the top of one another.

The cinematography is similarly hostile, the anamorphic frame often getting right up in peoples’ faces, a lot of this imagery appropriately ugly to match Howard’s lurid lifestyle – the baby pinks and blues of his storeroom and office display a queasy sugariness reflective of the candy-coated trashiness of his life and work.

Amidst the on-screen chaos is a thin, yet still vast sombreness to his degradation – his family, his finances, his control – that are all as close to complete erosion as this point. Such sadness is mostly highlighted by the score from Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never), his music bringing out the hidden emotion in the film rather than amplifying its hyper nature like his music for the Safdie brothers’ previous film Good Time did.

Uncut Gems is an immense work, one that puts an entire focus on each and every one of its details. Surrounding Howard, all of the characters (not matter how small) look and real feel, though Adam Sandler carries the incredible weight of this film with what is arguably his greatest performance, one that elicits a huge deal of sympathy and pity. A far-cry away from his recent Netflix comedies, Uncut Gems is a near-perfect film in every aspect, and has introduced a larger-than-life character to cinema history.

DAVID MORGAN-BROWN

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