Josh and Benny Safdie's UNCUT GEMS starring Adam Sandler as a jewelry dealer with a gambling habit

*SPOILERS*

Probably a dumb question, but why does Arno's pal shoot Howard and Arno at the end? Was it just because he was pissed off about being locked up and wanted to rob them?

Er yeah. Try locking an enraged gangster in a cupboard for a bit and see if it does you any favours lol

- oil rig
- whaling vessel circa 1850-1880
- Florida

Great ideas, love it, we can work something up, love your whole vibe. One quick note: can the oil rig / whaling vessel circa 1850-1880 / Florida be in New York City?

gotta be florida

This after Ratner had surely tried to screw him a hundred times.

Well, it's 47th Street.

Was Garnett's postgame interview where he mentions "the rock" shot for the film? If not, wtf?

"rock" is a common slang term for the basket ball

*SPOILERS*

Probably a dumb question, but why does Arno's pal shoot Howard and Arno at the end? Was it just because he was pissed off about being locked up and wanted to rob them?

― paolo, Sunday, February 2, 2020 5:53 AM bookmarkflaglink

I feel like it's that, but also, he considers Howard a little peckerwood that has defied Arno and him throughout the movie, no matter what violent action or threat they make. so the motive for him is easy.

as for Arno, I feel like he shot him because he tries to escape, and perhaps he thinks Arno might go to the police, but also, at this point he also probably considers Arno weak for letting Howard walk all over him. probably figures hey, for all the trouble this prick has put me through, let me kill him too, then we'll get not only the money that was originally owed Arno, but maybe the million that Howard's girlfriend just won.

*SPOILERS*

Probably a dumb question, but why does Arno's pal shoot Howard and Arno at the end? Was it just because he was pissed off about being locked up and wanted to rob them?

― paolo, Sunday, February 2, 2020 5:53 AM bookmarkflaglink

I feel like it's that, but also, he considers Howard a little peckerwood that has defied Arno and him throughout the movie, no matter what violent action or threat they make. so the motive for him is easy.

as for Arno, I feel like he shot him because he tries to escape, and perhaps he thinks Arno might go to the police, but also, at this point he also probably considers Arno weak for letting Howard walk all over him. probably figures hey, for all the trouble this prick has put me through, let me kill him too, then we'll get not only the money that was originally owed Arno, but maybe the million that Howard's girlfriend just won.

*SPOILERS*

Probably a dumb question, but why does Arno's pal shoot Howard and Arno at the end? Was it just because he was pissed off about being locked up and wanted to rob them?

― paolo, Sunday, February 2, 2020 5:53 AM bookmarkflaglink

I feel like it's that, but also, he considers Howard a little peckerwood that has defied Arno and him throughout the movie, no matter what violent action or threat they make. so the motive for him is easy.

as for Arno, I feel like he shot him because he tries to escape, and perhaps he thinks Arno might go to the police, but also, at this point he also probably considers Arno weak for letting Howard walk all over him. probably figures hey, for all the trouble this prick has put me through, let me kill him too, then we'll get not only the money that was originally owed Arno, but maybe the million that Howard's girlfriend just won.

*SPOILERS*

Probably a dumb question, but why does Arno's pal shoot Howard and Arno at the end? Was it just because he was pissed off about being locked up and wanted to rob them?

― paolo, Sunday, February 2, 2020 5:53 AM bookmarkflaglink

I feel like it's that, but also, he considers Howard a little peckerwood that has defied Arno and him throughout the movie, no matter what violent action or threat they make. so the motive for him is easy.

as for Arno, I feel like he shot him because he tries to escape, and perhaps he thinks Arno might go to the police, but also, at this point he also probably considers Arno weak for letting Howard walk all over him. probably figures hey, for all the trouble this prick has put me through, let me kill him too, then we'll get not only the money that was originally owed Arno, but maybe the million that Howard's girlfriend just won.

lol

I think the moral of this story is that the consequences of your actions always take their toll. You can’t outthink, out perform or out experience what’s been promised. Everybody gets what they were told they were gonna get.

Except maybe kg but he is kg!

(Good fake out on the cancer scare btw... what IS it about Jews and colon cancer anyway?)

My companions at my rewatch advanced the “the gem is actually magic” proposition and the biopsy coming back clean seems like part of that thread to me thinking about it now. On the other hand if you attribute Howie’s charmed life to the power of Howie it might be that.

Lol stupid reposts

Big 'King Of Comedy' energy from this

At the end when Arno and the heavies are staring daggers at Howie, who's just oblivious to anything but the high of chasing his compulsion, I was like, what does this remind me of? And it's Jerry Lewis, staring daggers at Sandra Bernhard and Deniro, duct-taped on the table as these two powerless New Yorkers career off into their shoot-the-moon scheme, enacting their fantasy of control for one shining moment

I thought one point of the end is that Howard has been playing this like a game all along, but to the heavies with guns, this is not a game. That's why they have guns. So he thinks he's "won," his brother in law thinks he's "won," but these bad guys are bad guys and they don't give a shit. In a way when they take them out, *they've* won the game *they've* been playing.

Arno’s goon is just a hired goon, though. It’s not going to do great things for his feedback on goon Yelp that he murdered the last dude to hire him

who would leave the feedback tho

Hired goon or no, he clearly doesn't have an off switch. Kind of reminds me of, I dunno, "Out of Sight?" Where Albert Brooks throws his money around to pay for protection/hired goons, somehow not realizing that any allegiance is to that money, not to the man. Arno is not a real heavy - he doesn't have the (lack of) heart. And Howard might be a selfish, compulsive, self-destructive gambler, but he still cares about people, too. The heavy, though, he's truly bad, enough so that killing someone out of anger and frustration is worth more to him than whatever he is being paid. The jewelry he snags right after is just an afterthought.

Arno clearly got cold feet and was a liability, dude made a snap decision and killed him to prevent him from talking. honestly a snmart goon move imo

I kind of got the impression that the goons didn't have any particular allegiance to Arno. I imagined that Arno was like a wannabe gangster who probably was connected to an actual gangster who ordered his goons to provide Arno with some muscle, but they ultimately saw that Arno was full of shit.

and a pussy, as Howie correctly pointed out

There are definitely some hints that arno doesn't quite have the stomach for mob life.

Throughout. Exclusively.

It seemed like he was using the apparatus of enforcement to lean on Howie but but wasn't down with the actual ethos

You can just keep letting someone who owes you money slide! You've got to send a message. It was clear no message was going to be sent, no code followed, just... let the degenerate gambler pay us now. I can understand why his tough guy decided "fuck that" and killed

The heavy, though, he's truly bad, enough so that killing someone out of anger and frustration is worth more to him than whatever he is being paid.

After weeks or months of seeing Arno give Howard repeated, unwarranted second chances, and then being locked in a diving bell with a sweaty Bogosian for hours and listening to Adam Sandler free-extemporise throughout, who amongst us etc etc

xxxxxxpost

I thought Sandler was alright but replacement-level, basically. He was inconsistent. I loved his odd lilting salesman cadence in the shop. At times he was str8 Gilbert Gottfried. You have to wonder what Julia, a smoking hot, tender, cool, caring young woman sees in this guy. Felt uncomfortably like a bit of wishful thinking.

Those two thoughts are unconnected, I guess - sorry i've wodged them into the same graf

I actually didn’t find the julia relationship too implausible. don’t think we got too much background on her but she is young, presumably very fucked up, howard seemed to treat her well and had money, etc. I actually found their relationship pretty affecting

he's rich(ish), keeps her out of trouble, does weird sex stuff she likes

also he's not a cokehead unlike the other guys she meets in her job as a coke dealer

Sure - and I wasn't really bothered by it - lord knows I've seen enough real relationships where I'm like 'huh?'

They kept her feelings about Howie pretty ambiguous.

And we never find out what happens to the money

Howie's Angel carts it away iirc

sandler was fine which for sandler is saying a lot

Yes that is how I break it down to an extent

I also thought of Gilbert Gottfried!

Yes, there's no accounting for who some ppl screw.

Refresh my memory, do we know Bogosian is Sandler's brother-in-law before the seder scene?

I don't think so

don’t think so

i feel like there's a throwaway line that implies some kind of family connection prior to that but nothing specific

no, and it’s such a great reveal

weird sex stuff?

Well. She’s pretty delighted to have him be jacking off in the cab, and more delighted he was in the closet all along

you're describing a vanilla tuesday there though

i feel like there's a throwaway line that implies some kind of family connection prior to that but nothing specific

― na (NA), Tuesday, February 4, 2020 4:44 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he does seem to know an awful lot about his family and kids in that scene in the car (that amazing detail where arno mentions that howie's sending his kids to the notoriously ritzy camp timberlake)