Uncut Gems review

Uncut Gems made my top ten of 2019 list which was a little surprising as I didn’t like it anywhere near as much as I had been led to believe I would. It’s a testament to the films greatness then that I still do think of it as great, the best example yet of Josh and Benny Safdie’s take on the slimy, sketchy, pulse raising underbelly of New York.

The film thrusts us into the sparkling hurricane of a life of Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a diamond district adrenaline addict who gets his fix by making a series of increasingly ludicrous and high stakes bets, hedges and parlays. To be honest that might not be the exact right terminology, but the movie isn’t really concerned with the technicalities either, hand waving the jargon and giving Howard a clear sequence of tasks to complete no matter how convoluted the specifics.   

 

This is the movies great trick, to create a sense of whirling, fast paced chaos whilst never letting the audience lose sight of what needs doing, or what’s at stake. Howard is always barely solving one problem before using the solution to create an even larger one, like watching a free climber scale a mountainside without any safety equipment, each handhold giving way just as he manages to get a grip on the next one.

The effect this has had on many people has been overwhelming. The buzz on this movie is that it’s the most tense thing you will see, this year or last year, or any recent year for that matter. It’s an experience that has your heart pounding and your palms sweating from beginning to end. This is where I have to diverge from the consensus. While the narrative does build into a very tense finale, I was not all that anxious for a lot of the run time.

This mostly has to do with consequences, and why one should care about them. See, from the very beginning Howard is presented as a pretty unlikeable guy whose compulsive bad decisions will ultimately lead to his downfall. Since I sussed this out very early on I could not get too wrapped up in the ways Howard’s life fell apart, because I knew he was never getting away with all this and I knew he deserved what was coming.

And yet as the masterful final sequence rolled around I found myself on the edge of my seat, fretting over the outcome of a Basketball game I remember watching the conclusion of in real life. The key to this is newcomer Julia Fox as Howard’s mistress Julia. Here we have someone who is fundamentally a decent person, and whose life is in real danger if Howard screws up. It’s a dynamic that never quite works when Howard’s original family is under the cosh, but Julia is absolutely compelling as a naive enabler who just wants her man to be happy.

Ultimately the convincing rendering of films seedy, semi-glamorous world (set in expertly recreated 2012), it’s sharp plotting and Fox and Sandler’s career best performances* are just so overpowering that I have to shrug at the fact that this was not the white knuckle thrill ride I was promised. Instead it is just a fine, FINE, film. 

*admittedly ones career is a lot longer than the others, so maybe Sandler is a bit more impressive.