Uncut gems howard11/17/2023 ![]() ![]() The Safdies know the Diamond District because their father worked there, and they lay out this famously scruffy block amid the glitz of midtown Manhattan with great specificity. This is the work of the brothers Josh and Benny Safdie, and if you’ve seen either of their previous films, Heaven Knows What and Good Time, you know that this is what they do: stories of desperate New Yorkers running pell-mell over town with life and death as their stakes. Even though that bet hits, he is constantly in debt, because he makes all these schemes and never considers the possibility that they might fail. Garnett leaves his NBA championship ring with Howard as collateral for the opal, and Howard immediately turns around and pawns the ring for cash to bet on KG’s Boston Celtics. Howard’s wife (Idina Menzel) openly detests him, partly because he’s having an affair with a sales clerk named Julia (Julia Fox), and is planning to leave him after Passover. He is a lowlife of a specifically Jewish sort - his fellow Jews would probably call him a schnorrer - but I dare say that many people from other minority communities know someone of his type: a guy constantly on the make, without an off switch, who doesn’t know how to play it cool or dress for a formal gala, the sort of operator whom classier immigrants with college degrees and such are supposed to be ashamed of. Who would be rich enough to buy such a stone? NBA superstar Kevin “KG” Garnett (who portrays himself - brilliantly, it should be said), who takes the rock out on loan and proceeds to have a big game in the playoffs, cementing his belief that the stone possesses good mojo for him.Ī prologue set in Ethiopia shows a miner mangling his leg after finding the black opal, which would seem to imply that the gem is cursed, except that the gambling-addicted Howard doesn’t appear to need any help destroying himself. His store is on a second floor behind a nondescript wooden door, but that’s about the only thing inconspicuous about the reflective sunglasses-wearing Howard, whose Twitter handle is Shady methods have brought a rare uncut black opal into his possession, which he has valued at a minimum of $800,000. Adam Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a jeweller who owns a shop in New York’s Diamond District. On the contrary, it’s remarkable in many ways, and yet undoubtedly it got on my nerves. It would be if I thought this unrelenting thriller was a bad movie, but it isn’t. The film has earned rave reviews from its fall festival screenings, with many critics praising Sandler’s performance as one of his bests (alongside his other dramatic efforts like Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories).Sometimes, it’s really fun to be the guy saying that the Christmas movie riding a wave of positive buzz is terrible. ![]() Uncut Gems also stars Idina Menzel, Lakeith Stanfield, Julia Fox, Eric Bogosian and Judd Hirsch. “When he makes a series of high-stakes bets that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime, Howard must perform a precarious high-wire act, balancing business, family and encroaching adversaries on all sides in his relentless pursuit of the ultimate win,” reads the film synopsis. Uncut Gems centers on Howard Ratner (Sandler), a charismatic jewelry dealer with many high-profile New York clients, including Kevin Garnett and The Weeknd (both portrayed by themselves in the film). The film opens in wide release December 13th. A24 released the trailer for its highly anticipated new crime film, Uncut Gems, directed by the Safdie brothers ( Heaven Knows What, Good Time) and starring Adam Sandler. ![]()
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