A film to remember
Sam Mendes’ ‘1917’ one of the best movies this year,
Uncut Gems
★★★ (out of 4) Starring Adam Sandler, Idina Menzel, Julia Fox, Kevin Garnett, Lakeith Stanfield, Eric Bogosian, Judd Hirsch and The Weeknd. Written by Ronald Bronstein and Josh and Benny Safdie. Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie. Opens Wednesday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 137 minutes. 18A
An early match cut signals the mayhem to come in “Uncut Gems,” the latest filmic face punch from Josh and Benny Safdie: a shiny black opal morphs into a throbbing colon.
Part of a prologue showing an opal-studded rock being discovered in an Ethiopian mine, it’s like a parody of an Indiana Jones movie.
It’s also a tip to the character played by Adam Sandler, whom you could call a real orifice. He’s Howard Ratner, a jeweller in the New York City of 2012 who seems to spend more time getting into trouble than he does selling precious stones. That’s his colon on the screen, in all its gross glory.
Afidgety cat with dyed hair and goatee, diamond ear studs and a bad gambling habit, Howard has a knack for pissing off everybody he meets, which includes his soon-to-be-ex-wife Dinah (Idina Menzel), his mistress/employee Julia (Julia Fox) and the mobsters to whom he’s deep in debt, to the tune of more than $100,000.
Good thing the glass doors of Howard’s Manhattan office are bulletproof — although the buzzer that opens them frequently malfunctions, giving the film additional jolts of comedy and drama, depending on who’s attempting to gain access.
Howard figures he can solve all his problems by auctioning off that hunk of uncut opal, which he managed to smuggle out of Ethiopia (inside a dead fish) and which he swears is worth millions. He’s both lucky and unlucky to have NBA star Kevin Garnett (who plays himself ) as a client.
Garnett takes a shine to the rock, setting in motion a series of events that aren’t going to make Howard’s life any easier, to say the least.
Watching it all go south, with restless camerawork similar to the Safdies’ previous film “Good Time,” might just fray the last functioning nerve you have in your body. That’s a compliment — and so is the observation that this is the best character Sandler has ever played. He’s so much better as an orifice than as a moron.