Still prefer Good Time, but this was fantastic
If Good Time was a grimy riptide of a crime thriller, Uncut Gems is a whirlwind. The frantic anxiety doesn't gradually escalate and it doesn't stop; the movie starts in the middle of a fuck-up hurricane and only intensifies from there.
First impressions tend to say a lot. So Howard Ratner must be an asshole, considering we're introduced to him by way of camera traveling through his rectum mid-colonoscopy. Loud, gaudy, powered by skittish sleazy adrenaline and a compulsive gambling habit, Howard is already a man drowning at the start of Uncut Gems. Within ten minutes, at least three people ask where their money is; every time, Howard unconvincingly promises it's coming like the rat he is. Adam Sandler disappears into the role much like Pattinson did in Good Time, using his comedic talents to heighten Howard's pathetic personality and gleeful relish for the hustle. He may be an utterly unlikable human being, but his awe-inspiring lack of self-preservation is just so immensely entertaining.
Howard is already on the hook with a local loan shark for a hundred grand, so the titular mesmerizing opal arrives at the perfect time. When Celtics player Kevin Garnett enters his jewelry shop, Howard seizes the opportunity, starting a chaotic chain reaction of pawning, schemes, and further upsets of his deteriorating life. The man, thus the movie, never stops. There isn't conversation in Uncut Gems, just a cacophony of frustrated voices and sounds of the city. There aren't chases or clever outwitting because Howard is too incompetent to ever flee effectively. Instead, panicked gambits and stalling pile up amid beatings and threats. Even the quiet moments maintain the anxiety since that quiet is not calm, but rather minute extensions to a shortening fuse. If not a flurry of texts shattering the calm and quiet, then it's a coldly-staring tail, or someone else asking for their money, or Howard's distracted demeanor as gears turn in his head. It's those moments, where Howard isn't in the midst of his hustle-or-death antics, where he could show some humanity but doesn't, that really highlight how much of a unrepentant scumbag the character is. Family, friends, money, self-respect, all are sacrificed upon the altar of greed, and it is electrifying.
Uncut Gems may be relentless but it didn't quite surpass Good Time for me. This movie doesn't have its predecessor's urgent single-night odyssey or Connie's cold calculating shrewdness or the leaner grimier thrills. But that's more a matter of taste than of quality. Uncut Gems is undoubtably a masterclass of stressful cinema, second only to Climax for this year's most anxiety-inducing film. The Safdie Brothers continue to master their craft, and I can't wait to see what they accomplish next
