Photo: Adam-Sandler by CONNOR VICK is licensed under CC BY 2.0
By Alice McIntyre
Uncut Gems (2019) is a two-hour-and-fifteen-minute-long heart attack. And I love it.
It seems highly unnatural to say that about a film starring Adam Sandler. Stranger still is the fact that Uncut Gems, in marked contrast to Sandler’s myriad rom-com roles of days past, is a thriller about a jeweler with a gambling problem dealing with the very serious consequences of his actions. The guy from Jack and Jill is now capable of locking debt collectors in a doorway.
Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie (who previously directed 2017’s Good Times), Uncut Gems takes the viewer on a neurotic, high-velocity ride through the life of Howard Ratner. Howard runs a jewelry store in New York’s Diamond District and is struggling to pay back a number of gambling debts, first and foremost $100,000 owed to his brother-in-law, Arno. In the midst of this, he comes into possession of a rare, natural Ethiopian opal. He is subsequently subjected to a veritable barrage of sticky situations involving physical violence, marital trouble, and a general strain on his personal life and safety.
This opal is a constant motif in the film, one which is given a direct visual parallel to the universe. After Howard lends the opal to basketball player Kevin Garnett and subsequently bets all of his (borrowed) money on Garnett in that night’s game, and he wins. This demonstrates Howard’s arguably mistaken belief that he’s a skilled gambler, and leads Garnett to believe the opal holds magical powers. The opal can be conceived as representing the natural chaos, risk, and uncertainty of the universe, and the introduction of the opal is what sets off the events of the film. (Well, that and a colonoscopy.) Howard is fooled by randomness—he, like all gamblers and speculators, holds the delusion that he can tame chaos and predict the unpredictable.
We lock ourselves in webs: of individuals, of social forces, and of ourselves. The neuroticism brought to the fore in Uncut Gems is that which permeates capitalism itself — rapid-fire numbers games, constant competition. The statement “this is how I win” personifies the system’s instinctual drive to cast away methodical, rational, and planned actions in favor of market (and individual) anarchy. In these circumstances, many find themselves in need of an out: gambling, sex, drugs, anything to embrace or escape omnipotent anguish. Towards the end of the film, Howard has a brief moment of vulnerability in the wake of his initial failure to sell the opal. He realizes, for a short while, that he’s backed into a corner and at the end of his line. But the moment Garnett agrees to buy the opal, the moment things seem to be in Howard’s favor again, he jumps right back into the routine. He pays for this with his life.
To Uncut Gems, it all ends in blood. Even when you think you’ve won, you’ve lost. Howard pulls off the bet of his life, only to be shot in the face immediately afterward in his moment of triumph. Violently fucking people over is the name of the game in capitalism, whether it’s Ethiopian jewel miners or some schmuck who owes you $100K. The only way to win the game is to not play.
Oh, and the score is by Daniel Lopatin, who practically invented vaporwave. That’s a plus.
Verdict: Redemption/10. Adam Sandler is good, apparently.
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