• A roller-coaster, a time bomb, a heart-attack—you pick the analogy— the Safdie brothers have confirmed their arrival as major auteurs, in a big way, with Uncut Gems. Their specific brand of narrative propulsion is their directorial trademark
  • It’s not even really a story- it’s a scenario—the Safdie’s wind it up and let it go— aided by the proclivity of claustrophobic close-ups, overlapping (and loud) dialogue, New York City, savage selfishness
  • The film lacks the level of dedication to the neons and specific color palate in Good Time
  • ambient noise a character in the film, overlapping dialogue like Altman, but at a crazy high volume, shouting, buzzers going off, street noise, high anxiety
  • Alexander Mackendrick’s 1957 film The Smell of Success seems like an appropriate precursor in a lot of ways- dark, juggling act
  • The Daniel Lopatin score is a wow— ballsy—very different — I admired his work on Good Time as well which was more John Carpenter-grindhouse—this is a little more retro melodic almost Vangelis-like—I do like that this score makes it clear that the Safdie’s were in clear creative control of this project— I think with any other studio or meddling producer they insist on something else.
  • Sandler’s achievement is among the best for an actor or actress in 2019. He’s a tornado– destructive, compulsive– It’s worth a debate whether this or 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love is Sandler’s best and I consider that an incredible compliment
Sandler’s achievement is among the best for an actor or actress in 2019. He’s a tornado– destructive, compulsive– It’s worth a debate whether this or 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love is Sandler’s best and I consider that an incredible compliment
  • The NYC diamond district is a character in the film, like Howard Ratner (Sandler, and a great name), loud, abrasive—the casino, the nightclub (a gorgeous sequence at 58 minutes of the red neon at the club)
a gorgeous sequence at 58 minutes of the red neon at the club
  • Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant (1992) certainly feels like a companion piece (though I can’t imagine anyone is such a masochist (or have the endurance) they’d watching them together in a double-feature—haha).  Going way back how about von Stroheim’s Greed? Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre? Gollum’s obsession with the precious in LOTR? After Hours from Scorsese is another for sure- NYC, compressed time, a labyrinth.
  • The opening and closing bookends are tremendous. We start with a man who has a leg compound fracture (all in the name of greed) – then the camera dives into the opal at a molecular level like Fincher’s Fight Club — The Safdie’s transition to Howard’s colonoscopy and then at the very end of the film we mirror the opal molecular examination with his bullet wound
The opening and closing bookends are tremendous
  • A Highly Recommend/ Must See border film – a great triumph