Uncut Gems

Rating – 4/4

**SPOILERS**

         Adam Sandler.

         Said to be one of the nicest guys in Hollywood.

         Has also made some surefire comedy classics, depending on if you don’t mind shutting your brain off for a little bit. The Waterboy, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Grown Ups, among the many. And personally, some of my favorites.

         I can go for hours quoting them nonstop.

         And while Sandler’s dramatic performances are highly acclaimed, I haven’t seen many of them (sorry, don’t kill me). But I do know that he can turn off the goofiness and show off his acting abilities and Uncut Gems is no exception.

         Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a New York City jeweler who is deeply in debt, one person being his brother-in-law, due to his nasty gambling habit. He takes people’s money, gambles it, and then pays them back using his winnings.

         But what happens when you lose? Yeah, people may be asking where their money is?

         And when Ratner comes across a valuable black opal from Ethiopia, a chance encounter and deal with Kevin Garnett during the 2012 playoffs brings Ratner into a twisted web of lies deceit, violence, and desperation to win at all costs. Pun fully intended, it costs Ratner and everyone close to him a lot of pain.

         It’s like a dark inversion of Sandler’s usual comedic formula. Instead of being a flawed, nice guy who means well but unintentionally hurts people along the way, Ratner’s flaws are played for drama and deconstructed. He appears to have everything: money, a beautiful wife, three children, and everything he wants. In reality, he’s a pathetic, desperate man who is never satisfied with what he has and is always seeks more, maliciously and deceptively.

         The cycle of addiction continues.       

Bobby Boucher and Billy Madison may be dimwitted and get pushed around by the antagonists of their respective movies because that’s part of the humor and we laugh because we know they’re going to succeed in the end and it’s satisfying watching the villains get what they deserve. With Howard Ratner, he is the villain with his backstabbing and trickery. It’s almost satisfying watching him get beat up and mocked because he deserves it. Unlike Bobby Boucher or Billy Madison, Ratner’s not doing things for other people, he’s doing things purely for himself, thinking it’s really for the good of others.

Nope, it’s pure, selfish greed.

I guarantee you that Bobby Boucher would want to tackle Ratner’s greedy ass into next week.

And yet, you do feel somewhat sorry for Ratner as he truly believes he’s trying to be a good person. If he wins big, then he can finally pay off his debts and everything can go back to normal. Maybe he’s beaten his addiction once and for all. Maybe he and his family can reconcile. Maybe.

But no. It never ends that way.

What really elevated Uncut Gems is its script and direction, which the Safdie Brothers nailed. Every character feels human, thanks to the rapid and repeating dialogue. Characters talk over each other and repeat themselves and they swear frequently, as if they’re desperate to hammer their point across. They’re emotional, they’re flawed, and they’re real, like you could sit down and have dinner with them or want to avoid at all costs.

Major applause also goes to some of the non-actors as well like Kevin Garnett and The Weeknd. They don’t feel forced or stiff like a typical cameo, and their dialogue is not full of pop-culture references that wink at the audience, they’re treated like part of the story and part of Ratner’s daily life.

And ultimately, Uncut Gems is a study on one man’s desperate and pathetic life that never ends well, despite how hard he tries because he’s a massive, self-inflicted fuck up.

Uncut Gems is quite literally, a valuable gem in cinema. It’s intense, it’s violent, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s Adam Sandler at his best. It never slows down and shows the dark side of wanting too much and sacrificing everything important. Free from being a formulaic goofball in his earlier films, Sandler is free to show off how too much can be a bad thing and how it can come crashing down.

         There really is more to life than money.