Uncut Gems (2019)

★★★★
There are many things going on at the same time in Uncut Gems, but above it all rises Adam Sandler's performance. It is the performance of a lifetime. The day will hopefully come when somebody writes a book on his career. It will cover his beginnings on Saturday Night Live and his Happy Madison output, the good and the bad. It will cover his breakout role in Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love before his career stalled thanks to some truly terrible movies like Jack & Jill. After a stint producing movies for Netflix, he came back in force, and by that I mean he came back with the gloves off and landed every single punch with deadly accuracy. Uncut Gems is a masterpiece. It is not only Sandler's best movie by far, but one of the best I've ever seen. It comes at you like a tornado that sweeps you away with its perfect storm of dialogue and music. In the book of Sandler's career, the chapter on Uncut Gems would be excruciating even if it captured just a tenth of the movie's chaotic unfolding.

Watching this movie is torture. That is normally a description I would use against a bad movie, but I can apply here as well because it illustrates with fierce precision the sickness of gambling addiction, which is an agonizing affliction for some people. How would it feel to lose large bets, borrow to win more and lose again, owe multiple lenders and return home to a failing marriage every night? Uncut Gems features a character experiencing these difficulties and delivers this story with furious intensity. There are lots of moving parts, all fighting for space in a crowded narrative bursting with overlapping dialogue and communicated to us in a rapid stream of vulgarities and wild editing. The Safdie Brothers (Josh and Benny) orchestrate this symphony of insanity like a duo possessed by Howard Hawkes and passed through filters built by Tony Scott and Martin Scorsese. When I say that this is a phenomenal achievement, I mean it, and I say it without hyperbole. It's the kind of movie that can change someone's life. Anyone with a gambling addiction should watch it and see how bad things can get.

Adam Sandler stars as Howard Ratner, a dealer in Manhattan's Diamond District. He is a master of words and cunning in his interactions. He obsessively bets on sports and accumulates debt faster than he can pay it. His ticket to success could be around the corner, though. As the movie opens, we visit an Ethiopian mine in the middle of a worker revolt. With everyone occupied outside, two workers go inside and find a valuable black opal. Cut to Manhattan over a year later, where Howard receives a package containing the same opal. He plans to sell it at auction and make a fortune. Before the big day arrives, he must navigate his daily business contacts and escalating pressure from lenders who relentlessly pursue him for payment. Among them is his brother-in-law Arno (Eric Bogosian), who is fed up with Howard and hires some muscle in the form of Phil (Keith William Richards, terrifying in his first acting role) to intimidate the delinquent jewelry dealer and get his money back.

Demany (LaKeith Stanfield) is a business associate of Howard. He has high-level contacts and frequently brings in clients with money to spend. While Howard is gushing over his new opal, Demany brings in N.B.A. star Kevin Garnett (playing himself). Howard shows him the opal, and Garnett is immediately transfixed by the glorious rock, which Howard tells him is worth over a million dollars and will be up for auction. Garnett wants it right away, and Howard agrees to loan it to him. During his next game, Garnett gives an exceptional performance on the court. The opal is his good luck charm. While that is going on, Howard has to fend off Arno, who comes around frequently with Phil in tow. Howard tries to keep him at arm's length with empty promises of incoming money, but the physical violence increases with every encounter. At one point, he's humiliated when he's tossed naked into the trunk of his own car. Howard has a mistress, Julia (Julia Fox), who works at the jewelry store and lives in an apartment owned by him. Their relationship is hardly a secret from his wife Dinah (Idina Menzel), who despises him. His kids are distant. Howard's gambling addiction is so extreme that he can barely pay attention to them.

Howard's life is in shambles. The Safdie Brothers illustrate his downward spiral with a mosaic of hostile encounters, all of which have Howard on edge and frantically tossing water out of his sinking boat. Only by sheer wit and his glad-handing charm can he buy himself more time, but the time he buys for himself only compounds his stress. The most pathetic moment of his existence comes when he recruits his father-in-law (Judd Hirsch) to help him in a scheme that could go horribly wrong if it fails. Howard's existence as of late is just one pathetic moment after another, so even this episode quickly falls down the list of offenses as new ones take the top spot. Amidst the onslaught of abuse, Adam Sandler shines. The Safdie Brothers capably ratchet up the tension to unbearable levels with plot developments and post-production magic, but Sandler's performance is mesmerizing and is the glue that holds everything together. When Howard believes he has control of the situation, he feels at ease as he convinces himself that his overdue win is within reach. The moment he finds himself at a disadvantage, he desperately tries to regain the upper hand and claw his way to safety. Sandler plays Howard as if receiving an eternal dose of adrenalin from a bottomless intravenous bag.

Uncut Gems hurtles towards its conclusion mercilessly. Howard Ratner's world is collapsing. Rare moments of euphoria are not attempts to mislead us. Compulsive gamblers occasionally win. It is the nature of the beast. What happens afterwards, though? Howard's gambling habit is reminiscent of anyone's gambling addiction. The occasional win fuels more reckless decisions. His latest meal ticket is Kevin Garnett, giving what is probably the greatest performance by a professional athlete. Retired by the time he played the part (the movie takes place in 2012), Garnett masterfully complements Howard's bravado with his own drive to win. His Boston Celtics are playing the New York Knicks in the playoffs, and he feels the opal brings him luck. The opal is the source of much of Howard's agony, as it disappears before it is scheduled to go up for auction. Both men view the rock as their key to victory. Weaving its way through the plot is the specter of gambling addiction. I've never seen the sickness so vividly depicted. It does for gambling what Requiem for a Dream did for drugs. Once the movie was over, I sat silent in the theater. That doesn't happen often. A movie this great doesn't happen often.

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