Uncut Gems (2019)

Review

135min

Genre:       Comedy, Crime, Drama

Director:     Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie

Cast:         Adam Sandler, LaKeith Stanfield, Julia Fox…and more

Writers:     Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie

-Synopsis-

When he smells a score that could solve all his financial woes, a wheeler-dealer New York jeweller takes a major gamble which ropes-in professional athletes, bookies, ballers and his family, putting his head on the chopping block while he performs a tightrope con act on a journey of greed and excess, in the quest for the ultimate win.

With the corporatisation and franchising of the film industry over the last couple of decades, the burden of creativity and daring has increasingly fallen on the shoulders of independent cinema over the years, and in a small corner of the business two New York brothers have worked passionately to bring some of the grit, vibrancy and energy of 90s American and European indie film into the 21^st century with films like ‘Heaven Knows What’ and ‘Good Time’. Now all-round filmmakers Benny and Josh Safdie up the scale and star power but sacrifice none of their vision, teaming up with affable comedy superstar Adam Sandler to further re-invent his career by delivering a gritty character comedy of chaos and pulsating crime drama . . . with more shifty figures than you shake a stick at.

Sandler himself stars as New York City jeweller and degenerate compulsive gambler ‘Howard Ratner’, a neglectful father and unfaithful husband to his wife ‘Dinah’ (Idina Menzel), a shifty wheeler-dealer who runs his store with his young employee/lover ‘Julia’ (Julia Fox) while owing money all around town to questionable people determined to collect. But things take a decisive turn when Howard comes into the possession of a precious raw African gem, and his right-hand-man ‘Demany’ (LaKeith Stanfield) brings ageing Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett to the browse the store, as all his hopes and headaches gather around one big bet which could swim or sink him for good.

Being Jewish New Yorkers themselves, the Safdie brothers as always frame their culture and their city as characters in their own right in the film, making good use of a cornucopia of shifty, idiosyncratic thick-accented local figures, and the salty blue-collar language that comes with them—and with the normally wholesome Adam Sandler jumping into the all the salty fun with relish.

Indeed the film’s star truly has a career defining moment here, and even after a crowd-pleasing twenty-five year film career marked by early success and then years of coasting with forgettable but lucrative projects, the perennial Hollywood nice guy reminds us of the nuance hidden under his likeable comedy exterior as previously seen in films like ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ and ‘Reign Over Me’, collaborating with the Safdies to deliver a career re-defining role. And it’s a testament to his performance that it leaves us rooting for an essentially self-centred albeit well-meaning deadbeat, but perhaps one with a disease too, yet far from a diamond in the rough as the film’s title might suggest.

He’s supported by a colourful cast of characters on form, including Idina Menzel in justifiably jaded resentful wife mode and as you’ve never seen her before, and vibrant newcomer Julia Fox as the devoted young mistress, plus solid performances from the likes of burgeoning star LaKeith Stanfield and screen veteran Judd Hirsch, while retired NBA star Kevin Garnett delivers an unexpectedly assured and naturalistic turn as essentially a slightly younger version of himself. All of whom are as loud and brash as the film is itself, another distinct Safdie hallmark.

In addition to the city, the culture and the characters, there’s one final ingredient that helps to define the film’s personality while feeding its considerable energy and driving the tension in the narrative—the real jewel in the film’s crown, the music. ‘Uncut Gems’ sees the Safdies reunite with Brooklyn electronic artist and ‘Good Time’ composer Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never)—who’s threatening to become this generation’s Giorgio Moroder—as he weaves together a highly atmospheric, often pulsating and occasionally ethereal Vangelis-inspired synth score with shades of seminal Manga classic ‘Akira’, combined with a soundtrack from the likes of Tony K and The Weeknd, who himself has a cameo in the film.

To some ‘Uncut Gems’ might prove too loud, frenetic and chaotic, but that’s part of its gritty urban charm and a deliberate narrative reflection of Howard’s world, or indeed the life of any compulsive gambler, with its peaks and troughs, highs and lows and one inevitably leading to the other, but in a story where everything that could go wrong does. But in the end, relatively inexperienced filmmakers the Safdies hold it all together with style and skill, grabbing us by the plums and never letting go with this shimmering addition to their growing reputation.

The Bottom Line…

A tense and pulsating little gritty New York crime drama packed with all the earthy language, colourful characters and blue-collar humour the city’s jewellers and pawn shops have to offer, with ‘Uncut Gems’ Benny and Josh Safdie deliver a career re-invention platform for its likeable star while further carving a vibrant place in 21^st century indie cinema for themselves in signature style—enthralling and entertaining us along the way.

‘Uncut Gems’ is available on Netflix in the UK and Europe from the 31st of January, and is out in selected UK and US cinemas now.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Good Time (2017)

When an ill-conceived heist goes wrong and his mentally challenged bother is captured, a young New York street criminal plunges into a tense and unpredictable night of misadventure, caught in a determined race against time to spring his sibling from jail in this energetic pulp thriller from celebrated indie filmmakers the Safdie brothers.

Directed by Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie and starring Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie and Buddy Duress among others.

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