Uncut Gems

Spoilers!

Howard Ratner follows a long line of cinematic Poor Souls, those whose very meaning in life is defined by creating obstacles for them to overcome.  Always in the hole.  The thrill of the chase.  Winning? How empty, at least ultimately.  Check those final moments in Robert Altman's CALIFORNIA SPLIT.  But Howard may tell you otherwise. Try to convince you that that bet he placed will solve all of his problems.  And there are many.  One is the loan shark he keeps dodging - his brother in law.  Another is the wife who wants to divorce him, but not until after Passover.  Then there is his employee/girlfriend, the one he set up with an apartment on the Upper East Side.

Funny thing in 2019's UNCUT GEMS - Howard's bets come through.  Longshots that will make the audience face palm in frustration. What seem to be another wrongheaded decision among many.  His entire life.  But all of his making. We can't feel sorry for Howard because his messes are calculated by him alone.  In one of my favorite moments - none other than Boston Celtics power forward Kevin Garnett looks at Howard in utter disbelief when a late hour bet is placed.  In that moment, the athlete provides some of the best acting in a movie filled with powerhouses.  This includes welcome supporting work from Eric Bogosian, Idina Menzel, and even Judd Hirsch.  Good to see him again.

And yes, Adam Sandler positively kills it as Howard, in a performance entirely credible in its relentlessness.   It matches the Safdie Brothers' latest movie, a frantic, almost nonstop barrage of stress that rarely allows the audience a break.  It feels more like an experience, perhaps an endurance test, than a movie.  The Safdies' style really comes into its own here.   I was not entirely impressed with it in 2017's GOOD TIME .  In UNCUT GEMS, there are mystical elements, embodied in a rare opal encased in a rock that Howard obtains from an Ethiopian mine.  The jewel will drive much of the plot, and transfix more than one character.  But how are we to interpret the opening and closing scenes, as the camera enters the opal and exits into outer space?  Or the same destination reached via a bloody bullet wound at the end of the picture?  Is this chunk akin to some modern day version of the monolith from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY? A symbol of Zionism?

Discuss among yourselves.  I have some ideas, but they are stabs.  Maybe something about all us being part of the universe.  Returning to the earth.  Bound for carbon, dust, once again.  All the running around we do, all the possessions we covet, just artifacts as we go from ashes back to ashes.  Makes a helluva movie in between, though.

P.S. Also gotta love that John Amos cameo.