Every
December as the Oscar season approaches, I look forward to the handful of artsy
indie films that somehow emerge among all the big studio releases with much
larger marketing budgets (like ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,’ ‘Frozen 2’
and ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’) and generate buzz among film critics. What stood out this year for me is ‘Uncut
Gems,’ the Safdie Brothers’ fascinating, genre-defying portrait of a sports
gambling junkie played to manic perfection by SNL-alum Adam Sandler.
In
what had to be his best performance to date (though admittedly that’s not too
difficult considering his body of work), Sandler is perfectly cast as Howard
Ratner, a Jewish jewelry store merchant in NYC who, despite his station and
relative wealth, racked up such a large gambling debt that his own loan shark
brother-in-law had to sic goons to intimidate him. Instead of paying off his debt, Howard is
ever looking for the next big payoff, which usually involves betting on Kevin
Garnett in risky all‑or‑nothing parlays during the 2012 NBA playoffs between
the Celtics and Sixers. Will Howard win
the bet of his life by turning his wager of $155,000 to over $1.2 million in an
unlikely three-way parlay, or will he be just another cautionary tale of how
gambling has ruined “many a poor boy”?
If
‘Good Time’ didn’t place the Safdie Brothers as avant-garde auteurs of
singular talent on your radar, ‘Uncut Gems’ certainly should. In Howard, Sandler had outdone himself
inhabiting the role of an obsessive‑compulsive sports gambler, husband, father and
philandering mistress-keeping sleazebag despite the fact that his wife is
played by none other than the lovely and opera-voiced Idina Menzel. Yet for all his flaws – like an uncut gem –
we can’t help but trail him as closely as the Safdie Brothers’ camerawork in
this movie appears to because this fast-talker radiates as much manic energy and
desperate intensity as a star about to go supernova. And semi-consciously and half
willingly we may even find ourselves somehow pulling for the schmuck. Go figure.
Grade: A
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