Uncut Gems
Year: 2019
Rating: R
Length: 135 minutes / 2.25 hours
Much like The Lighthouse (2019), Uncut Gems (2019) was one of those films that gained a lot of buzz around the award season for the performances of their lead actors. However, neither of these films was nominated for Best Picture, and now I understand why. It’s nice to see Sandler branch out from his standard comedy niche, but ultimately it didn’t feel like he was “acting” that much by being a Jewish jeweler with a gambling problem since being Jewish is often a part of his schtick.
I wanted to like this film more, but many things just annoyed me about it. I can understand the desire to create “realism” in the dialogue by having twenty people yell over each other. Still, it mostly just made it hard to understand anything that any individual said. It’s the same reason I don’t care for the films of John Cassavetes. On top of this, Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) had few redeeming qualities and was just kind of a scumbag throughout the whole film. Maybe if he had some amount of character growth, it would have been tolerable.
All this being said, I can see the artistic appeal of Uncut Gems, even if it starts by showing the audience the known universe only to end up on the wrong side of a colonoscopy camera. Unfortunately, Uncut Gems also follows many of those “artsy” tropes that gain awards buzz but don’t have much substance past their cultural zeitgeist. This includes (but is not limited to) its sudden and somewhat unsatisfying ending. In the end, I get why Uncut Gems has its fans, but it’s just not for me.
An artsy Adam Sandler film that was more annoying than thoughtful, I give Uncut Gems 3.0 stars out of 5.
