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

the first parlay he tried & wouldve hit w/ francesa i think wouldve had longer odds than the later one but i can't entirely remember

& i dont care abt this but you cant bet on sports @ mohegan sun in connecticut (currently even, & def not in 2012)

Didn't live up to the hype but came pretty fucking close. The movie had a physical effect on me. Someone I was with left an hour in because they were having heart palpitations. It just NEVER lets up, similar to After Hours in a way, and I find the ending really beautiful in a way. He died at the absolute happiest moment of his life, completely unaware he was about to get shot in the face. He'd be chasing the high of that 4 day (?) run for the rest of his life. And his kids, wife, and mistress are safe (for now). Fucking great movie and a real step up from their previous work, which was very good. Altman comparisons are completely earned, unlike PTA. This really did feel like a 2019 Altman movie, made by two people culturally incisive and conveying a specific milieu of the American underground. Deeply unpleasant to watch but stunning all the same.

What scenes did you find unpleasant? I was grinning constantly.

Howard Ratner is Tevye for our new dumb century

Um, EVERYTHING. An enormously stressful movie that builds tension so gradually that by an hour in you realize you're fidgeting and cheering for points Garnett scored and I mean the ENTIRE movie is building up to him getting shot in the head at the absolute happiest he will ever be. It's a masterpiece of pacing.

It's possible to find every scene unpleasant and like the film -- or admire it.

For sure, I guess I just never felt the tension in my gut the way I sometimes do, or I was having too much fun to notice.

At some point I sensed that nothing bad could happen to Howie, and, indeed, nothing really does.

It's the constant yelling and overtalking plus persistent feeling of imminent fisticuffs

Some of you aren’t Jewish!

the last scene of sandman & kg where hes conceiving the bet & trying to pump garnett up was maybe a fav of mine

It was good, felt like a thesis statement, also exceedingly Jewish

Loved the throwaway gag of the bookie haranguing a stoic line cook about how to make a Caesar salad

Killer NYC movie too, like I said this was like an east coast Altman movie

"All that plane wine got me all fucked up"

So excited to see this. In the meantime, I'm in a Sarasota theatre about to see "Little Women" and some retiree with dyed black hair just loudly declared to a friend that "Uncut Gems" was "the worst movie I've ever seen!" "That's funny," said the other old guy, "my son told me it was one of the best movies he's ever seen."

lol silby

there’s a certain element that seems over the top to me, but it’s very much a smaller city midwestern tempo surrounding me in the theater juxtaposed with the noisy, overtalking rush on the screen

I feel like the basic energy level and peacocking in NYC is much higher, and with reason. You’ve got to really push it to stand out

I'm in a Sarasota theatre

hi!

I kinda wish I found this more stressful than I did but maybe it's because Howard seems to have a kind of "grace" as someone said above. His speech to KG near the end was the key for me because this is a movie about a person with an admirable sense of self-knowledge. He knows exactly who he is and no part of his life, even his transparently phony attempt to win his wife back or breakdown in his office seems different than he'd like it to be. He's not a tragic figure.

this film is nuts

― 💠 (crüt), Saturday, December 28, 2019 12:33 AM (twenty-one hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

these guys really know how to convey stress, I’ll say that

― babu frik fan account (mh), Saturday, December 28, 2019 1:09 PM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes

the last scene of sandman & kg where hes conceiving the bet & trying to pump garnett up was maybe a fav of mine

― johnny crunch, Saturday, December 28, 2019 6:09 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

really yes

Those who’ve seen it: I met this man Ara (who plays in the film) at the craps table the night before shooting (i couldn’t fall asleep). I convinced him to be in the film — see the time stamp on my first text to him — and he was perfect. https://t.co/cJXeInzIB9 pic.twitter.com/kMuyEULyOK

— SAFDIE (@JOSH_BENNY) December 27, 2019

Loved the throwaway gag of the bookie haranguing a stoic line cook about how to make a Caesar salad

A hilarious moment. A real stretch to see Mike Francesca play a hollering blowhard who doesn’t know what he’s talking about - listen closely and you can hear him mispronounce croutons as “crow-tons”.

I am not totally sure how to articulate it but I am turning over in my mind how the end of the movie is “some goy fuckhead is enraged about being locked in a vestibule for four hours by a Jew”.

Adding Lakeith Stanfield to my “should be in every movie” list

wowowow this was something else. made me really regret not catching Good Time in the theater.

otm Lakeith Stanfield is so so good.

yeah, agreed

Howard never gets high, I don’t think he has a drink and he’s not drunk

His primary vice is chasing that adrenaline dragon. And the audience watching gets a contact high. I'd probably agree with the "dirtbag Altman" assessments if I remembered seeing any Altman other than M*A*S*H.

The costume and set designers must have had a blast going all-in on the blingiest that time and place had to offer.

the safdies are really cornering the market in movies about desperate men making a series of terrible choices huh

thought this was great, sandler is really genuinely fantastic

think overall i preferred good time tho - I was not prepared for its sweaty dirtbag nightmare energy and it hit me like a train and the slightly more refined version on display here didn’t quite hit the same high

and yeah lakeith stanfield is always a pleasure, and always different - love that guy

I don’t see how these guys have anything to do with Altman outside of them both making a movie about gambling addicts. Maybe overlapping dialogue? Still a stretch imo.

Altman's rhythms are less caffeinated.

Have you seen the new one? I don't think it applies to their previous three films. This one though, completely different story... their first movie shot anamorphic afaik, certainly the overlapping dialogue, the roving authorial eye of the camera, the keen observation, the incisive and remorseless analysis and critique of a particular American milieu, using a familiar and worn out genre as a frame to hang so much else on. as in Altman, there's a paradoxical feeling of glazing over a world AND being completely immersed in it.

I realized the thing their four films have in common: characters in extremely stressful time sensitive situations that they created that will likely kill them and/or their loved ones (even Daddy Longlegs - those sleeping pills!)

xp

I think the reason this was extra stressful at times to me was it triggering my old gambling addiction memories.

Now, mine was minor, and way less stakes than what he was betting, but man does watching a sporting event feel like life and death when you put an assload of money on it

I dabble in small gambling - just between friends and family, usually just on elections and Oscar winners - and yeah this movie really does convey a gambler's high. not only conveys it but transfers it so masterfully to the audience. I find the ending so beautiful, the gambler's fantasy. I completely agree with Ryan above, he's not a tragic figure at all.

Oh Howard is the ultimate dumpster fire of a human being.

Yet he still got someone to tattoo his name on her butt

Yeah I thought this was very good at conveying the idea that the real high from gambling (or from addicted, unhealthy gambling) doesn’t come from winning, its from feeling like you’re probably about to win. Winning is a disappointment, because it’s an ending.

Aside from the overtalking, I don’t think I really see the Altman comparisons at all tbh. I guess they’re both interested in getting at a certain kind of naturalism, but seem to take exact opposite routes to get there imo

exact opposite? in what way? tons of similarities between this movie's cinematography and CA Split, Nashville, even Prairie Home Companion. constantly roving, pushing in and out, scanning. and at least in Uncut Gems, there's certainly a similarity in sensibility, hiding wry social commentary behind a typical [insert genre]. it's a happy ending for Howard, but it's calamitous for almost everyone else. I think it's a brilliant critique of capitalism, moreso than the great but very obvious Parasite, because it intoxicates us along with Howard, and his sudden violent death hits us that much harder. I mean this movie has a physical effect on people, and it can be read in so many ways, like Altman's films. more similarities: perfect specific casting, loose ends hanging everywhere, a study of the death and decomposition of the American Dream.

Howard being a horrible person ("dumpster fire"?) doesn't make him a tragic figure, he's living his best life in this movie, and dies at the pinnacle of his experience. of course we never see the inevitable fallout and collateral damage from his run, the movie ends when he ends. he looks so happy there lying on the floor.

I think Altman is a super interesting and productive point of comparison with the Safdies, but I dunno, the similarities seem superficial to me. Both are immersive, but to me Altman movies seem more about inviting the viewer into a shared environment, getting the audience to observe things they might not have noticed otherwise. Whereas Gems & Good Time are more about trapping the viewer, forcing us to exist with things theyd rather turn away from. The stories in Altman feel more open to me, whereas Safdie movies are as locked off as Greek tragedy: as soon as we meet Howard in Gems and Connie in Good Time, we immediately know their fate & the only thing in question is how much collateral damage they leave behind. The resolution (such as it is) in California Split for example seems far less preordained, and far less final, than it would be if the Safdies made that film.

That's a great point. Unlike Altman, all four of their films follow one person. And I agree about the certainty of outcomes - I'm hard pressed to think of a major Altman movie that moves in such a clear way - and certainly the Safdies create a sense of tunnel vision whereas Altman is panoramic. But the crucial quality that defines Altman, and I agree about this - "inviting the viewer into a shared environment, getting the audience to observe things they might not have noticed otherwise" - is definitely present in Uncut Gems. that might just be a product of superb casting and mis en scene, because Altman is also about nailing a milieu. but so is Michael Mann, at least in his major work - maybe a better comparison is Heat. I thought about Heat a lot during Uncut Gems, there's a similar attention to detail and characterization. and obviously all the anamorphic nighttime city cinematography.

uncut gems is good tho, unlike heat

savage

i calls ‘em like i sees them

Interview with the guy who plays the heavy - his first acting job.

https://uproxx.com/movies/uncut-gems-scary-guy-interview-keith-williams-richards/

that guy is a fucking dead ringer for my old landlord

he was genuinely scary, i was wondering where they found him

the safdies really found some wild characters to put in this movie

Did anybody else read Arno as small-time and in over his head?

He appeared horrified when the Suge Knighted Howard out the window and seemed to be trying to stop them.

And i also assumed, as a brother-in-law, he felt he couldn't kill him as it would follow him everywhere he went, so he was hoping to torture Howard into paying, only to have Howard shrug it off to where...what other choice would he have? His hired thugs are legit gangsters and he finds that out the hard way.

Also did anybody get a Howie butt tattoo after seeing this

"The Stranger" was an A+ musical cue.