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

yeah, she was fantastic. the fact that so many new actors / non-actors gave such killer performances in this movie makes me wonder how much of the hype surrounding Sandler's performance is actually deserved, lol (but he was great of course)

I think the role of human pinball required someone with a certain degree of charisma, at the least to overcome the character's off-putting nature, which in turn required a name/star, especially not one associated with being tough. But while I think Sandler was great, I do agree his performance is a tiny bit overrated, since we already knew he could act (Punchdrunk, Funny People, that one where he plays a chef -Spanglish?) and some other actor who could convincingly play a slimy schlub could probably have pulled it off just as easily. (Didn't they say they wanted Jonah Hill?) I will say, regardless, that Sandler was as perfectly *cast* as those non-actors (and actors). They should give a Best Casting Oscar.

supposedly the role was more or less written for Fox, then in development financiers wanted a "name" instead, but she ended up winning out against a large number of competitors

A large part of acting is being natural, and some first-timers embody that real well. Especially in a filmed medium where you get multiple takes.

But the Safdies probably helped by letting them be comfortable rather than being overbearing on set.

Also still LOLing at

"Jews and colon cancer, I mean what the fuck. I thought we were the Chosen people."

KG was fine in his scenes, certainly good enough, but what was truly uncanny was the seamless folding in of his "performance" in the game footage.

KG is one of the weirdest mfs to ever play the game, a god

josh otm re:casting. Sandler is great in this but i think some of the rapturous praise for his performance has been a little over the top, its not really an exceptional stretch for him to play an annoying perpetual adolescent who yells all the time

lol yeah he wasnt v out of character in those scenes. the one time i was like dang sandler is killing this was when he was hunkering down in his office after getting his nose broken and falling apart

It's more that this film plays to his strengths than anything.

But a lot of what he does well in this film is the sliminess of the character. He is very believable as that one family member you have, that neo-Willy Loman who prattles on about himself and all these big deals he's making, and they're mostly bullshit. The guy who will bum ten bucks off you and treat you like you're the asshole for asking for it back.

His speech, outside of the yelling, is different than other Sandler performances. His voice is grittier, his line readings a bit more deliberately paced; he has to control EVERY conversation

While the role matches what a younger Sandler would've brought to it, the age, weight, and some acquaintance with the horrors of families give this performance a Method inflection.

I don't feel the need to say "he's great but" tbh; he's fantastic. a more impressive performance than Punch Drunk Love, imo, which mostly used familiar tics but warped the environment around him

Tim Heidecker still has the definitive take on this movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrvcFlnwPEo&feature=youtu.be&t=292

Pretty sure I won't see anything better in movies this year than E Bogosian's incredulous face

this reminded me a lot of Noe's Enter The Void w/ its pulse and palette, psych landscapes, the headlong impending disaster

I appreciated the relentlessness but feel like this could have benefited from a beat here and there...the few moments of Howard wheeling his trash cans to the curb were effective like this, ratcheting the tension up w/o all the yelling

I also enjoyed the ridiculous way Idina Menzel ran to the car.

She was funny

"you are the most annoying person I have ever met" very possibly the line delivery of the movie

followed up by salt in the wound dgaf prom dress modeling, oof

bat mitzvah dress modeling?

i think yes?

too much shouting

IMO Howard shoulda bought KG's bodyguards

Would’ve been out of character

But he'd be alive!

Btw what was the place Howie stopped at on the way home to his apartment? He had a green bag and Julia came in with the same bag

Smith and Wollensky steakhouse

Thank you!

50 minutes with Sandler and KG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Qp1uwri_M&feature=emb_title

Saw this yesterday in London at the first of two sold-out showings at the Prince Charles Cinema.

What an exhausting film! It's very immersive and believable, but also like being trapped with people whose only range of social interaction is constantly 'Fuck you! No Fuck you!' for 2 hours.

Really glad I saw it with an audience as it did highlight the elements of humour that I'd probably have missed watching it by myself. I thought Idina Menzel's acting was especially great, particularly being able to show derision, bewilderment, and disgust through facial expressions alone.

kg's irl intensity was a good fit with the vibe of the movie. so many fucks per minute. it felt like half of the characters had the job of keeping the howard ratners of the world out of places they're not supposed to be.

i get nervous all the time watching movies, but this one didn't feel physically stressful to me, not really sure why. though once he won the bet i did have a brief thought of "oh god, you let them in, not out?"

This is an appreciation post for the auction house receptionist.

Voice on the phone was Tilda Swinton, iirc.

yep. I have felt like her many a time.

You run an auction house?

no, talking to someone who is a complete asshole who wants to be catered to over everybody else and finally just blowing up at them and saying "I HOPE TO NEVER WORK WITH YOU AGAIN!"

I loved the receptionist calling her and being like "oh no it's a separate question"

The opal reappraisal was some kind of bullshit, if you ask me. He was right to be pissed.

xp it's this person

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYwdWlcO43Y

xpost wasn't the original appraisal just them going off of his unverified numbers on good faith, then realizing he had grossly overestimated the value once they did their own appraisal?

I mean they didn't even have a picture of the item, so I assumed they literally rushjobbed it since he gave it to them 5 pm on a Friday for a Monday auction.

Yeah, he admits he didn't have time to show them to his guy, so he was just guessing their value, more or less.

I think they lowballed it

I loved the receptionist calling her and being like "oh no it's a separate question"

― papa stank (Neanderthal), Saturday, January 4, 2020 1:12 PM (seventeen minutes ago)

vg++ moment

They lowballed it because they had to rush through an appraisal in a quarter of the time they usually have and didn't have the time to get multiple appraisals done because of that.

It's not like he ran his own appraisal and they chose to go with theirs. He just told them someone he knew valued it at that range.

Given that he was a bit of an asshole to them, I'm sure that didn't help matters.

Loved his strong denial of not getting his pool resurfaced followed up by a hasty walk back on that claim.

Love that this ended with "L'Amour Toujours." Saw it with my husband and that's, like, our song :')

finally saw it today. i have many biases in favor of me liking the movie (kg, celtics, safdies) but i did like the movie quite a bit. i did find the pacing in the middle was a bit sluggish but the big speech to garnett forward was absolutely amazing stuff. i know enough about how they work to anticipate the ending but still got sucked in to howard's gambling high.

josh's knack for working with nonactors makes me wonder why more directors don't try it.

My friend who reads every interview about every movie says they basically tell ppl “just be yourself”

makes sense; josh is pretty good at inspiring confidence

I think for this to work consistently you’d have to employ their approach to shooting—using long lenses, loose blocking, writing for crosstalk, allowing for improv etc., all things that probably help non-actors “forget” they’re acting. Not easy for sure.