Directed by: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
Release date: December 25th, 2019
Rating: 8/10
Uncut Gems is the Safdie Brother’s third feature film, that follows a New York jewel dealer and his many mistakes is pursuit of wealth. This is a very stylized film and it’s not for everybody. We follow this man, Howard Ratner, through his life as he makes mistake after mistake trying to get rich. Howard, while being the main character, is not a good person. He’s cheated on his wife, he places bets with money that he owes other people, he screws people over if he thinks it will make him richer. Even so, life beats him down and as a viewer we almost feel bad for him; on top of that we feel bad that we feel bad for him since he’s not all that great of a person.
Adam Sandler plays Howard Ranter and he is his best in years. I honestly did not think that he was capable of delivering such a performance, but here we are. We follow Ranter (Sandler) throughout the entire movie. It’s told from his perspective, which I think is smart because it’s about the only way we can sympathize with his character at all.
An issue I do have with the movie is that it can lose you in the middle because the pacing doesn’t change from the beginning. The pacing in the beginning starts out very fast and doesn’t let up until the third act comes around. It’s fast enough to keep you interested for while, but at some point it can get tiring to keep up with how fast the movie goes.
However, the third act is fantastic. Without spoiling anything, it is filled with so much tension I was literally getting anxious at the outcome. Just when you think you know what’s going to happen, the Safdie Brothers completely flip it around on you. I was sitting in theater after the credits started rolling still processing what exactly had just happened.
Uncut Gems is a fantastic piece of cinema that is extremely stylized and full of color. Throw in great writing and a lifetime performance by Adam Sandler and you are left with one of my favorite movies of the year.