Uncut Gems (2020) Review

 Uncut Gems (2020) Review

 

Dir. Josh and Benny Safdie 

 

Adam Sandler is a diamond in the rough in this adrenaline spike of a film.



 

 

Cinema is meant to be an experience, no matter how unpleasant or sweaty that experience may be. By that margin, Uncut Gems is certainly cinema. It almost transcends it.

 

This is the most intense viewing experience I’ve had since Whiplash. It’s a car crash that you can’t  look away from. A 2 hour long walk in the shoes of an everyday sociopath, and every step is more nauseating than the last.

 

Adam Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a New York jeweller who’s debts are piling up by the minute. We follow Howard as he plans a big scheme involving basketball stars, rigged auctions and a blood-soaked Ethiopian gemstone. Full of twists, turns and infuriating forks in the road, Uncut Gems is a rollercoaster for your blood pressure, and a story that would scare anyone away from a life of money-making and debauchery.  

 

This film does not quit once you press play. Its like the constant anxiety of being in a packed room on maximum volume. 

 

Adam Sandler is incredible, this is his most committed performance to date. Intentionally dislikable, exhaustingly immoral, yet compelling.

There’s a reason Scorsese is an executive producer over this film. Not since Goodfellas have we seen a film with a protagonist so ethically flawed, yet so transfixing to watch. Everything is telling us we should hate Howard from the word go, yet by the end, we are so deeply rooted in his world that we want to see him succeed. 

 

The Safdie brothers are names to watch. Taking under-appreciated actors like Robert Pattinson in their previous film Good Time, or Adam Sandler in this movie, and making them shine in all their gritty glory. 

 

A24 are killing it lately as a studio. They are a welcome break from the continuously commercialised and franchise-driven films we spend most of our lives consuming. Between Hereditary, The Vvitch and this, A24 has proven that its focus is on art, not money. A24 are doing the lord's work by giving auteurs like Ari Aster and The Safdie's a platform, and we are ever rewarded by it. 

 

Disorientingly Hyperactive, Unrelentingly Tense, Uncut Gems is a nail biting experience unlike any other. 

 

 

9/10

 

Review by Elliott Thomas Griffiths

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