Uncut Gems

As I round out the end of every year, there's always the crowded Christmas dump of films that I find incredibly annoying and impossible to get to - mainly for my own sanity. 

So Uncut Gems represents my second-to-last review of 2019 with Little Women hopefully coming in the next couple days and me sitting over here wishing that 1917 didn't have such a dumb release schedule. 

Uncut Gems has been getting universal praise for months now with critics calling it Adam Sandler's best performance of his career and the entire film a 2-hour long intense ride. I've been excited for it for a while even if I was slightly underwhelmed by the still-very-good Good Time; the Safdie Brothers' previous 2017 film. 

It seems I'm bound to be disappointed with Safdie Brother films then because Uncut Gems represents probably an even larger disappointment for me and I'm left a bit shocked that it's being talked about as highly as it is. The film is a unique beast. Incredibly annoying and obnoxious one minute, captivating and thrilling the next. It does represent great work by Sandler here - he's definitely not the problem - but the whole film feels like an exercise in patience with some truly awful and annoying characters. 

I started this blog many years ago to call them like I see them and Uncut Gems is an grossly overrated film that isn't any better than "good" by my rating system. 

Harsh opening aside, it's strange then that I definitely enjoyed aspects of Gems and I find the Safdie Brothers can be effective in creating tense situations. During a handful of scenes I was on the edge of my seat, wondering how unpredictable the film wanted to be. The ending in particular - while abrupt - was the film's highlight for me as almost everything comes down to a single basketball game that bounces between multiple parties for great effectiveness. While I think the Safdie Brothers get lost in their own chaos at times, when they get it right, they definitely nail it and Gems, much like Good Times did, has moments of that. 

3 terrible characters, all enjoying one another's company!

There's also a lot to love from a audio and visual standpoint. I've read reports that some theaters were having sound problems and outside of the first 10 minutes where character voices sounded really "echo-y", my theater was fine. The original score is fantastic in a way that reminded me a lot of a sped-up Drive and it was generally well filmed with the Brothers evolving to keep their signature "chaotic" style but limiting some of the more annoying things I cited previously (e.g. too many character close-ups). 

The rest of the film consists of a lot of annoying things that either culminated in ways that stressed me out (both good and bad) and/or quickly got on my nerves (bad). Nearly all of the characters are pieces of s**t and following them around it's hard to know who to even root for as the film throws curveball after curveball at Howard Ratner (Sandler). He's a wealthy degenerate gambler who gets in his own way and shouts a lot. His girlfriend is a bimbo who also shouts a lot. His friend, Demany (LaKeith Stanfield) is a wannabe thug who does whatever he wants, screwing over his friend and then telling him to calm down. Even Kevin Garnett as himself sucks as basically an athlete that feels he's God gift to earth and doesn't have to honor agreements (though to be fair, Garnett does shockingly well acting here). Oh and did I mention they all yell a lot, including all the characters I didn't mention? Certain scenes of the film are literally just minutes upon minutes of characters yelling at one another with so much commotion you start to not care what's actually happening. "F**k you!" this and "F**k off!" that are used as common adjectives in this script. The language doesn't bother me, but there were moments where there was so much yelling and chaos that I was getting stressed and annoyed collectively and I could tell others around me were feeling the same. 

Oscar winning? No. Oscar nomination? Sure!

At the end of it all, perhaps that's what the Sadfie Brothers were going for? A loud, obnoxious, well-made, and occasionally intense film with a standout performance from a surprise star. I surmise that this may be a movie less liked by general audiences and more so enjoyed by the critics. That's fine. I wouldn't need to see it again, nor do I think I could get through it a second time, but for a single viewing it was "good", even if it was an exercise in patience.

CONS

• A film that tests patience in more ways than one
• Annoying characters litter the script and screen. It's hard to care about a single one
• Almost a comedy of errors in an annoying way
• Scenes where everyone is shouting got old quick and there are lots of them
• Also quite an unimaginative script during these scenes. Basically just a bunch of "F**k x, y, z!"

PROS

• Solid performances all around. Sandler is the obvious highlight here and it's impressive work - though not worthy of winning the Oscar 
• Good movie making throughout. The camera is intense but not annoying, the editing is fierce without being overly done, and the original score is a hit
• An often intense film set in the world of sports betting that ends with impact (some will hate it) and can effectively keep you engaged in between scenes where you want everyone to shut the hell up

Rath's Review Score | 7/10