Though the film initially meanders a little - marinating in its own, finely textured world - the pace steadily ramps up across the 135-minute run-time, fuelled by the accumulation of Howard's erratic choices, until reaching something that feels uncomfortably like fever-pitch.Įqual parts infuriating and exhilarating, Uncut Gems is an accomplished piece of high-anxiety cinema from a pair of filmmakers with a clear knack for the form, a sense of their own, deeply felt excitement emanating from the frame. It's this kind of relentless optimism, and the full-bodied excitement he displays at every windfall, that ties Howard to the overgrown man-children Sandler made his name portraying: f*ck-ups who blunder through life see-sawing between sweetness and rage, their essential naivete somehow intact. Never satisfied, Howard always wants "another shot".
"Gimme another shot," he beseeches his wife Dinah (Idina Menzel, best known as the voice of Frozen's Elsa) at Passover seder, oblivious to the depth of her contempt for him, even after she laughs raucously in his face. This applies to his broken-down marriage too. And that's because what drives him is not the idea of getting rich (or rather, richer), but the orgasmic rush of winning - a rush that he'll pursue at all costs. Of course, he generally needs no encouragement in that arena. Production designer Sam Lisenco says around 35 different opals props were created for the film. The Boston Celtics power forward drops by Howard's shop in the company of Demany (Lakeith Stanfield, of Knives Out), the go-between responsible for reeling in cashed-up potential clients. Upon its delivery, the opal quickly gains another ardent admirer in basketball legend Kevin Garnett, who plays himself circa 2012 - when the film is set - in an auspicious screen debut. Khondji's prismatic camerawork is paired with a shimmering, ominous score by Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never, whose music also played a major role in creating the nervy ambience of Good Time. From the icy blue light that bathes Howard's claustrophobic showroom to the black-lit club where he sees The Weekend play, through to the forest green glow of the trunk of his Mercedes (where he's briefly confined), the film's colour palette could well be termed opalescent. Indeed, through cinematographer Darius Khondji's lens, the film itself appears to be under the stone's spell.
(OK, so there is a dash of toilet humour in the film.) In the course of a dazzling virtual rollercoaster ride through its striated interior, the cavity walls change from midnight blue in colour to pink and fleshy - the journey culminating as an image on a computer in Howard's doctor's office, where the protagonist is midway through a colonoscopy. The title sequence suggests that Howard is cosmically bound to his beloved opal. The Diamond District stretches across one block of West 47th Street in Manhattan, between 5th and 6th Avenues. This being a Safdie brothers film, predominantly non-professional actors are cast in these supporting roles - diamonds in the rough, plucked from the city streets and shopfronts collectively a rogues' gallery worthy of Diane Arbus. He's banking (quite literally) on the arrival of a hefty and long-awaited Ethiopian black opal, which he believes will bring in over a million dollars at auction, and so enable him to pay back - firstly - the hundred grand he owes to Arno, his loan shark brother-in-law (the riveting Eric Bogosian, most recently seen in Succession), as well as the numerous other money-lenders and bookies he's got on his back. Howard's attempts at keeping creditors at bay with reassuring words and Rolexes (fake ones), both distributed like candy as he wends his way daily through midtown Manhattan, are becoming less and less effective. ( Supplied: Julia Cervantes/Netflix)Īnd, with an unchecked gambling habit that complements his deep love of basketball (a love shared by Sandler and the Safdies), he's found himself trapped in a complex web of bets and debts of his own reckless making. Three first-time actors were cast in Uncut Gems: Julia Fox (pictured), former NBA basketball player Kevin Garnett and musician The Weeknd.
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