There’s only word I can think of to best describe the experience of watching Uncut Gems, and that is exhausting, in the best possible way.

From the editing & score, to the performances and directing the film will leave you sweating with your heart racing, and it is fantastic for doing so.

Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) is a gambling addict who also runs his own jewellery store in 2012s New York City. Often attracting some of the biggest stars, his most recent customer is sports star Kevin Garnett (who plays himself) who is immediately infatuated with Howard’s latest prize, a huge gem from Ethiopia that Howard hopes is worth over a million dollars. He hopes as much due to being in debt to more and more people as each day goes by, most pressingly a debt of one hundred thousand dollars that he owes to his brother in law. Along with this, Howard struggles with his family life with an impending divorce from his Wife Dinah (Idina Menzel) due to his affair with co-worker Julia (Julia Fox). With life always feeling one step ahead of him, Howard must pay back his debts whilst trying to find the next big win, as he reminds his peers, “This is how I win.”

It is hard not to base this entire review around the performance from Adam Sandler, but he is truly phenomenal in the role as Howard. Not since the days of Punch Drunk Love (2002) has Sandler shown off his acting chops to such a high level, and with the script supposedly being written with him exclusively in mind for the part is no wonder that it works as well as it does. He is infuriating to watch in every way, his dress sense is terrible, he is constantly shouting and every single decision he makes in his own self-made game of chess places him in checkmate. It isn’t all bombastic, although used sparingly he does deliver a very emotional scene in the film that I still cannot believe didn’t secure him an Oscar Nod, but that’s a whole can of worms.

The Safdie brothers seem to clearly have a knack for this type of film-making, relentless edge of your seat storytelling. Feeling not so dissimilar to their previous film Good Time (2017), Uncut Gems never lets you go, barely giving you any time to breathe before ending on a thunderous note that will stick with you long after the credits roll.

Uncut Gems will either leave you desperate for more, ready to jump back into the madness that is Howard’s world. Or, after two hours and fifteen minutes of sheer anxiety inducing film-making you may just need to lie down for a while.

Uncut Gems is the most exciting film you can watch right now, and is more than worth taking a chance on.

Directors: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
Writers: Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
Stars: Mesfin Lamengo, Sun Zhi Hua-Hilton, Liang Wei-Hui-Duncan

Kyle Gaffney
Latest posts by Kyle Gaffney (see all)