Uncut Gems (2020)

REVIEW BY: ROBERT CHANDLER

Scuzzy, raw, impeccable, frenetic, kinetic, chaotic, sublime, masterly, uncomfortable, and wilfully awkward in places... you watch UNCUT GEMS and surrender to the flight of a character holding on by the skin of his (fake) teeth as he wheels around New York City doing his deals, making his wagers and last-minute trade-offs. A character who only feels fully alive when he’s about to get dropped from a high window... but the odds of the game mean he might just pull off whatever’s at stake at that particular moment and scramble back inside. 

Back inside to what? Normality and rest? Ask James Caan in James Toback / Karel Reisz’s THE GAMBLER what it is he actually wants.

The rush of gambling means you don’t feel the bruises and the bloody nose, the broken bones; you don’t even feel the humiliation of being stuffed naked inside the trunk of your family saloon, from where you have to call your wife to come get you.

There’s no coming down from that rush, and so the Safdie Brothers made a near-masterpiece and reminded people just how good Adam Sandler is, and what a peculiar screen energy he has. 

Their film harnesses that energy in a way that hasn’t been seen since Paul Thomas Anderson’s own gem of loneliness and longing, PUNCH DRUNK LOVE.

Okay, I’m going to say it. I always knew Sandler was this good. From GOIN’ OVERBOARD through THE WEDDING SINGER and PUNCH DRUNK LOVE to GROWN UPS, Sandler is one of the most interesting actors out there.. you just have to find a way to tap into that peculiar energy. UNCUT GEMS is Sandler at his best.