Uncut Gems (2019)
Review of Uncut Gems (2019), directed by Josh and Benny Safdie
I watched Uncut Gems at a weird time, when I was thinking about the life I had in New York City and what my life looks like now. Perhaps it was fitting that I watched this movie during this inner turmoil I was having, because it shows us the New York City underbelly that many of us aren’t used to if you haven’t been there.
There’s the ultra-rich, the seedy, and then the average Joes who could never afford fancy jewels and gems. I remember on my freshman dorm floor in college, there were girls selling themselves to sugar daddies and prostitution to make a quick buck off of New York’s rich.
And that’s what the Safdie brothers are best at. They create these gritty New York movies that expose the everyday people and conditions that lie on the belly’s beast. He did this with this Robert Pattinson movie Good Time where he’s a criminal with a thick Queens accent. Uncut Gems, however, is a completely different beast. Let’s get into this review to dissect what I just watched.
After acquiring an Ethiopian gem, a Jewish New York dealer tries to sell it to a famous basketball player.
Our main character in this movie is Howard Ratner, who is portrayed by a slightly unrecognizable Adam Sandler. He’s a gambling addict, very Jewish, and his personality absolutely sucks. By the time he meets his fate at the end of the movie, you’re going to want to kill him yourself.
His wife, played by Idina Menzel, is going through the process of divorcing him. In the midst of the movie, she sneers about how much she can’t stand him, giving a voice to the audience that most likely thinks this guy is an absolute asshole.
The movie begins with a slightly disturbing colonoscopy. Howard has this belief that he is going to die young because of something they’re going to find in there, but I genuinely thought that they were going to find some gems in there. I interpreted this opening scene of showing that Howard was human, even though we may start to believe otherwise when the narrative of the movie begins to unfold in its full scope. It also shows Howard’s mortality.
Anyways, he owns a jewelry store in New York City. He’s just bought this gem mined by Ethiopian Jews and estimates that it’s worth about a million dollars.
When his guy who wrangles in the rich (Lakeith Stanfield) brings in Kevin Garnett, the famous basketball player, Garnett begins to become obsessed with the gem. He shows the intent to buy it, but borrows it for a night while giving his playoff ring to Howard. Howard then gives it to other gem people for money, as he owns his loan shark $100,000.
The loan shark plays a constant threat in this movie, as his cronies are always lurking in the background wherever Howard goes. When he goes to his kid’s theatre show, they lure him outside, tie him up, and lock him in the trunk of his car. His disgruntled soon-to-be-ex-wife has to rescue him and then immediately gets suspicious of
At the same time, Howard is cheating with Julia Fox, his secretary. I never knew of Julia Fox as an actress until now, but she’s dating Kanye despite him being peak chaotic right now. But when he discovers her doing cocaine in the bathroom with popular R&B singer The Weeknd, all hell breaks loose and Howard essentially loses his shit. It’s here we realize the extent of how terrible of a person he is because of how he slut-shames Julia and is just absolutely horrendous to her.
Howard then loses the play-off ring, gets angry when Kevin doesn’t return his gem, and reveals that he screwed over Lakeith Stanfield’s character by selling his goods. Howard’s son discovers that he is cheating on his mother after Howard demands the family go back to his apartment in order to check on Julia, who has left. He kicked her out of his apartment and then acted like he was surprised she was left. What a classic douche.
On the other hand, Kevin Garnett thinks this gem has magical powers and wants it. He isn’t willing to bid a million, so Howard makes a guy he knows bid higher and the guy accidentally wins it, essentially being conned out of 200,000.
Howard then riles Kevin up to the point where goading him the Brooklyn Nets couldn’t win a game by a certain margin, he places his bets, wins $1.2 million, and then is promptly murdered by the loan shark’s cronies. The loan shark is also killed during this process, which I found hilarious. The message of trust no one was clear here.
Overall Thoughts
It’s a good movie, but the main character is insufferable for a reason. I wanted to punch this fictional character in the face so badly. Anyways, this movie is reminiscent of the gritty 1970s New York City crime movies in the vein of Francis Ford Coppola and the Italian mobsters, but make it Jewish.
The editing and cinematography adds to the completely unsettling mood created by the atmosphere, story, and characters. It feels like there are undercurrents of class here as well because of how big Howard is betting on these things.
He’s dealing with the loan sharks and the mega-rich, but at the same time he has a little store probably in Midtown and doesn’t live a grand life. He seems pretty ordinary and is a guy trying to make himself seem bigger than he really is, which is what screws him over at the end of the day.
