Review: Uncut Gems

This one was one of the most anticipated movie of the year! Especially after the success of Good Time and how it has changed everyone's perspective of Robert Pattinson as an actor, it was certainly interesting to see what the Safdie brothers, Josh and Benny would come up with this time through their association with Adam Sandler. 

Uncut Gems follows the pandemonium in the life of a New Yorker, Howard Ratner, as he tries to escape the strangles of life brought upon by himself, only to run into much gripping strangles. The story takes place in 2012, a period even before Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd, has turned into a global phenomena. Ratner runs a jewelry shop, dealing with high profile customers and lives a luxurious lifestyle. He has only one problem and that is the fact that he has many problems. Of the many problems, along with the compulsive nature of betting he has, is the one that with all the outside flashiness, he can barely have a grip on his life, which is slipping by him so quickly. Neck-deep into debts, a broken family - because he left his wife and kids for his staff and mistress, Julia. The more he tries to unknot, the more dangerous the knots he has indulged in, becomes. Beaten and bruised by his own brother in law's men for owing plenty of money to him, Ratner finally finds an escape route from all the chaos in his life through the auctioning of an uncut opal, worth millions, which he managed to get sneaked into New York from Ethiopia.

Demany is another person working for Ratner. He gets high profile customers lured into Ratner's store and one of them is the NBA star, Kevin Garnett. He takes a liking for the opal and manages to get it's possession for a couple of days since he believe it can bring luck to his fading career. Chaos only gets bigger when Garnett fails to show up on the promised day and the auctioneers threaten Howard to pull his piece out of auction, amid getting threatened and followed by henchmen, as well as whatever he is left with begins to fall apart right in front of him.

Just like it was with Good Time, the film will take you to the edge of the seat with all the ongoing madness from the beginning to the end. You barely get to have a sigh of relief, even with some occasional pieces of funny moments happening. Safdie brothers are the Kings of chaos and they have mastered it so well that it is safe to say that they do know the pulse of the audience, in every sense, and they do know how to keep them ticking fast!!

This one easily could be the best performance ever in the career of Adam Sandler. He has showed what he can do, if provided with a solid character and script. It was interesting to see him slipping into the chaos of Howard Ratner and pulling it off with quite conviction. 

The movie goes on to show us how we are never really satisfied with what we have and how much we would risk ourselves in our chase for the elixir. As the diamond goes under severe pressure to become it's eventual form, the lives of those who are after them also comes under a lot of pressure, without ever knowing what's the price they have to pay for it. Just like the name, Uncut Gems, is well and truly a gem among this year's list of best movies. A24 has saved the day ( year ) again!!