Josh and Benny Safdie's UNCUT GEMS starring Adam Sandler as a jewelry dealer with a gambling habit

roundup here; out Dec 13

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6594-josh-and-benny-safdie-s-uncut-gems

PUMPED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTfJp2Ts9X8

this looks great. glowing reports from ppl I trust, too.

mike francesca?!

finally got around to seeing good time last week and it blew me away so i'm very much looking forward to this

best flick abt gambling addiction ive ever seen & wildly entertaining taboot

can't wait to see this

I went to the movies on Monday and they played this trailer twice!

Lol at the article in the first post marveling that Sandler is good playing someone annoying.

i hope the weeknd/lopatin tracks surface at some pt

Found out yesterday that this movie still doesn't have a Canadian distributor, what the fuck

i'm super-psyched for this even though i wasn't quite as high on Good Time as a lot of other folks, i sort of agree w/what Alfred said about it.

the energy and style is def the same as good time; i prob prefer good time slightly

Well.

That can be read many different ways.

I drank a glass of wine and a mug of coffee while watching, a gastronomic choice reflecting...the film's rhythm.

This and Climax are the movies of the year and I'm clearly dancing willfully on the edge of oblivion.

looking forward to seeing it

Doing an advance screening/live Q&A with the Safdies this Thursday at my local Alamo (still tickets left if anyone's interested, but not that many).

Well!

Watched this on screener at home and enjoyed it, but picked up a ticket for a Christmas evening screening 'cause I need to see this thing with an audience.

still mad I skipped seeing good time on a big screen, not gonna make the same mistake with this one

burying the lead that Kevin Garnett is in it apparently!
went to must watch status

he's in it *a lot*

(role was apparently originally attached to Kobe, Embiid and Amar'e)
https://www.si.com/nba/2019/12/12/kevin-garnett-uncut-gems-adam-sandler

absolutely UNREAL levels of Tri-State Guy emanating from this interview. incredible. https://t.co/KG5p0RFovc

— Max Read (@max_read) December 16, 2019

he looks like the dumpster woman from mulholland drive

otm

This is like a sports movie if the sport was gambling

Listening to the soundtrack. It's great but how on earth is this going to work in context?

It doesn't -- unless you imagine the soundtrack as the aural equivalent of Sander's fried neurons.

Hm. Well that works in Punch-Drunk Love.

(role was apparently originally attached to Kobe, Embiid and Amar'e)
loved this tidbit from the new yorker piece:

Stoudemire was not cast, partly because he declined to shave his dreadlocks, which he did not have in his playing years.

dvdscr of this has leaked.

The use of the music is very striking, it doubles down / gets almost comically louder in scenes where you'd expect it to ease off

kg was great, i wouldve loved to see how kobe wouldve been ~ script wouldve had to change quite a bit

I thought this was much better than their last one, and just as much in thrall to the gritty neo-noir aesthetic of Chinese Bookie/Eddie Coyle - which is a good not bad thing imo.

this is the only time I will link to an SNL clip, vintage or otherwise

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/wfpas-monsters-of-monologue-94/2872689

saw this at 11pm in an empty theater on xmas night, great way to blow off holiday stress.

Didnt like this as much as Good Time just bc GT felt like a bolt from the blue, but thought it was great. Only thing I didnt like was the music, which I thought was extremely bad & ridiculous in all the wrong ways, and actually ruined what should have been a couple of the strongest scenes imo. KGs performance was legit good & much better than I was expecting.

Saw this in a basically sold-out Christmas evening screening. A couple walkouts and at least one "this is so stressful!"

It has that in common with Little Women.

lol, my little women viewing was punctuated by irregular bouts of sniffles/weeping around the theater. people take their fantasies seriously!

Saw this same day as Star Wars ; both excruciating but this had more cathartic ending and more deft use of CG. Music felt like 70s after-school special scolding, which I guess this was?

Kevin Garnett’s force awakening was really done much better in this movie.

decision to make Rey the granddaughter of Amar'e Stoudemire a major misstep imho

Julia Fox gonna be everywhere before long.

this was fantastic, upped the walking-a-tightwire-over-the-void tension of good time even further

the stressful cacophony of overstimulation, the weird grace of a dirtbag juggling scams. see also killing of a chinese bookie, california split

This is like Requiem for a Dream, but with gambling (and but good).

Also, love that Eric Bogosian has this role and the completely different Bernie Sanders-type role in Succession in the same year. Thought we had lost him to Law & Order.

haven't seen Eric B in eons, used to go to all his solo shows in the '80s

Can’t believe Morbz liked a president

Same here, and watched Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll not long ago. This year seems like the first time in forever that he has memorable roles.

this film is nuts

these guys really know how to convey stress, I’ll say that

the scene where Sandler’s character making a play at putting things back together with his wife and we see his version of a remorseful expression staring into her eyes from her perspective and he just looks like such a goofball, only for her to voice that exact reaction.... perfect

haven't seen Eric B in eons, used to go to all his solo shows in the '80s

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, December 27, 2019 5:10 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Can’t believe Morbz liked a president

― Οὖτις, Friday, December 27, 2019 5:18 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/10/22/23/5297288-6304711-On_the_phone_At_one_point_Sandler_is_seen_glancing_at_his_phone_-a-95_1540246947677.jpg

Jesus god this movie got my blood pressure up.

Sandler totally nails the gambler's high!

Also glad for once they did the sports betting part right. OG Bad Lieutenant was infuriating how he kept betting "double or nothing", like even illegal sportsbooks won't do that shit

I'll have to take your word for it on the stakes, but holy shit was he making some weird contrived bets

Lol I'm glad that bookie could understand the cunt - I was a betting shop manager for years and didn't have a fucking clue what types of bets he was making!

He was doing crazy parlay betting where each of the three events (opening tip, Celts winning straight up, Garnett hitting certain threshold of points plus rebounds) had to all occur or else he would lose the bet.

Opening tip probably the riskiest cos of how random it can be.

So is there a porn called Uncut Jims yet

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) December 28, 2019

Good movie

This was less stressful than the stage play of The Prince and the Pauper I cringed through as a child though.

Things I noticed about the characterization: Howard never gets high, I don’t think he has a drink and he’s not drunk, only Arnold’s thug has a gun.

the first parlay he tried & wouldve hit w/ francesa i think wouldve had longer odds than the later one but i can't entirely remember

& i dont care abt this but you cant bet on sports @ mohegan sun in connecticut (currently even, & def not in 2012)

Didn't live up to the hype but came pretty fucking close. The movie had a physical effect on me. Someone I was with left an hour in because they were having heart palpitations. It just NEVER lets up, similar to After Hours in a way, and I find the ending really beautiful in a way. He died at the absolute happiest moment of his life, completely unaware he was about to get shot in the face. He'd be chasing the high of that 4 day (?) run for the rest of his life. And his kids, wife, and mistress are safe (for now). Fucking great movie and a real step up from their previous work, which was very good. Altman comparisons are completely earned, unlike PTA. This really did feel like a 2019 Altman movie, made by two people culturally incisive and conveying a specific milieu of the American underground. Deeply unpleasant to watch but stunning all the same.

What scenes did you find unpleasant? I was grinning constantly.

Howard Ratner is Tevye for our new dumb century

Um, EVERYTHING. An enormously stressful movie that builds tension so gradually that by an hour in you realize you're fidgeting and cheering for points Garnett scored and I mean the ENTIRE movie is building up to him getting shot in the head at the absolute happiest he will ever be. It's a masterpiece of pacing.

It's possible to find every scene unpleasant and like the film -- or admire it.

For sure, I guess I just never felt the tension in my gut the way I sometimes do, or I was having too much fun to notice.

At some point I sensed that nothing bad could happen to Howie, and, indeed, nothing really does.

It's the constant yelling and overtalking plus persistent feeling of imminent fisticuffs

Some of you aren’t Jewish!

the last scene of sandman & kg where hes conceiving the bet & trying to pump garnett up was maybe a fav of mine

It was good, felt like a thesis statement, also exceedingly Jewish

Loved the throwaway gag of the bookie haranguing a stoic line cook about how to make a Caesar salad

Killer NYC movie too, like I said this was like an east coast Altman movie

"All that plane wine got me all fucked up"

So excited to see this. In the meantime, I'm in a Sarasota theatre about to see "Little Women" and some retiree with dyed black hair just loudly declared to a friend that "Uncut Gems" was "the worst movie I've ever seen!" "That's funny," said the other old guy, "my son told me it was one of the best movies he's ever seen."

lol silby

there’s a certain element that seems over the top to me, but it’s very much a smaller city midwestern tempo surrounding me in the theater juxtaposed with the noisy, overtalking rush on the screen

I feel like the basic energy level and peacocking in NYC is much higher, and with reason. You’ve got to really push it to stand out

I'm in a Sarasota theatre

hi!

I kinda wish I found this more stressful than I did but maybe it's because Howard seems to have a kind of "grace" as someone said above. His speech to KG near the end was the key for me because this is a movie about a person with an admirable sense of self-knowledge. He knows exactly who he is and no part of his life, even his transparently phony attempt to win his wife back or breakdown in his office seems different than he'd like it to be. He's not a tragic figure.

this film is nuts

― 💠 (crüt), Saturday, December 28, 2019 12:33 AM (twenty-one hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

these guys really know how to convey stress, I’ll say that

― babu frik fan account (mh), Saturday, December 28, 2019 1:09 PM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes

the last scene of sandman & kg where hes conceiving the bet & trying to pump garnett up was maybe a fav of mine

― johnny crunch, Saturday, December 28, 2019 6:09 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

really yes

Those who’ve seen it: I met this man Ara (who plays in the film) at the craps table the night before shooting (i couldn’t fall asleep). I convinced him to be in the film — see the time stamp on my first text to him — and he was perfect. https://t.co/cJXeInzIB9 pic.twitter.com/kMuyEULyOK

— SAFDIE (@JOSH_BENNY) December 27, 2019

Loved the throwaway gag of the bookie haranguing a stoic line cook about how to make a Caesar salad

A hilarious moment. A real stretch to see Mike Francesca play a hollering blowhard who doesn’t know what he’s talking about - listen closely and you can hear him mispronounce croutons as “crow-tons”.

I am not totally sure how to articulate it but I am turning over in my mind how the end of the movie is “some goy fuckhead is enraged about being locked in a vestibule for four hours by a Jew”.

Adding Lakeith Stanfield to my “should be in every movie” list

wowowow this was something else. made me really regret not catching Good Time in the theater.

otm Lakeith Stanfield is so so good.

yeah, agreed

Howard never gets high, I don’t think he has a drink and he’s not drunk

His primary vice is chasing that adrenaline dragon. And the audience watching gets a contact high. I'd probably agree with the "dirtbag Altman" assessments if I remembered seeing any Altman other than M*A*S*H.

The costume and set designers must have had a blast going all-in on the blingiest that time and place had to offer.

the safdies are really cornering the market in movies about desperate men making a series of terrible choices huh

thought this was great, sandler is really genuinely fantastic

think overall i preferred good time tho - I was not prepared for its sweaty dirtbag nightmare energy and it hit me like a train and the slightly more refined version on display here didn’t quite hit the same high

and yeah lakeith stanfield is always a pleasure, and always different - love that guy

I don’t see how these guys have anything to do with Altman outside of them both making a movie about gambling addicts. Maybe overlapping dialogue? Still a stretch imo.

Altman's rhythms are less caffeinated.

Have you seen the new one? I don't think it applies to their previous three films. This one though, completely different story... their first movie shot anamorphic afaik, certainly the overlapping dialogue, the roving authorial eye of the camera, the keen observation, the incisive and remorseless analysis and critique of a particular American milieu, using a familiar and worn out genre as a frame to hang so much else on. as in Altman, there's a paradoxical feeling of glazing over a world AND being completely immersed in it.

I realized the thing their four films have in common: characters in extremely stressful time sensitive situations that they created that will likely kill them and/or their loved ones (even Daddy Longlegs - those sleeping pills!)

xp

I think the reason this was extra stressful at times to me was it triggering my old gambling addiction memories.

Now, mine was minor, and way less stakes than what he was betting, but man does watching a sporting event feel like life and death when you put an assload of money on it

I dabble in small gambling - just between friends and family, usually just on elections and Oscar winners - and yeah this movie really does convey a gambler's high. not only conveys it but transfers it so masterfully to the audience. I find the ending so beautiful, the gambler's fantasy. I completely agree with Ryan above, he's not a tragic figure at all.

Oh Howard is the ultimate dumpster fire of a human being.

Yet he still got someone to tattoo his name on her butt

Yeah I thought this was very good at conveying the idea that the real high from gambling (or from addicted, unhealthy gambling) doesn’t come from winning, its from feeling like you’re probably about to win. Winning is a disappointment, because it’s an ending.

Aside from the overtalking, I don’t think I really see the Altman comparisons at all tbh. I guess they’re both interested in getting at a certain kind of naturalism, but seem to take exact opposite routes to get there imo

exact opposite? in what way? tons of similarities between this movie's cinematography and CA Split, Nashville, even Prairie Home Companion. constantly roving, pushing in and out, scanning. and at least in Uncut Gems, there's certainly a similarity in sensibility, hiding wry social commentary behind a typical [insert genre]. it's a happy ending for Howard, but it's calamitous for almost everyone else. I think it's a brilliant critique of capitalism, moreso than the great but very obvious Parasite, because it intoxicates us along with Howard, and his sudden violent death hits us that much harder. I mean this movie has a physical effect on people, and it can be read in so many ways, like Altman's films. more similarities: perfect specific casting, loose ends hanging everywhere, a study of the death and decomposition of the American Dream.

Howard being a horrible person ("dumpster fire"?) doesn't make him a tragic figure, he's living his best life in this movie, and dies at the pinnacle of his experience. of course we never see the inevitable fallout and collateral damage from his run, the movie ends when he ends. he looks so happy there lying on the floor.

I think Altman is a super interesting and productive point of comparison with the Safdies, but I dunno, the similarities seem superficial to me. Both are immersive, but to me Altman movies seem more about inviting the viewer into a shared environment, getting the audience to observe things they might not have noticed otherwise. Whereas Gems & Good Time are more about trapping the viewer, forcing us to exist with things theyd rather turn away from. The stories in Altman feel more open to me, whereas Safdie movies are as locked off as Greek tragedy: as soon as we meet Howard in Gems and Connie in Good Time, we immediately know their fate & the only thing in question is how much collateral damage they leave behind. The resolution (such as it is) in California Split for example seems far less preordained, and far less final, than it would be if the Safdies made that film.

That's a great point. Unlike Altman, all four of their films follow one person. And I agree about the certainty of outcomes - I'm hard pressed to think of a major Altman movie that moves in such a clear way - and certainly the Safdies create a sense of tunnel vision whereas Altman is panoramic. But the crucial quality that defines Altman, and I agree about this - "inviting the viewer into a shared environment, getting the audience to observe things they might not have noticed otherwise" - is definitely present in Uncut Gems. that might just be a product of superb casting and mis en scene, because Altman is also about nailing a milieu. but so is Michael Mann, at least in his major work - maybe a better comparison is Heat. I thought about Heat a lot during Uncut Gems, there's a similar attention to detail and characterization. and obviously all the anamorphic nighttime city cinematography.

uncut gems is good tho, unlike heat

savage

i calls ‘em like i sees them

Interview with the guy who plays the heavy - his first acting job.

https://uproxx.com/movies/uncut-gems-scary-guy-interview-keith-williams-richards/

that guy is a fucking dead ringer for my old landlord

he was genuinely scary, i was wondering where they found him

the safdies really found some wild characters to put in this movie

Did anybody else read Arno as small-time and in over his head?

He appeared horrified when the Suge Knighted Howard out the window and seemed to be trying to stop them.

And i also assumed, as a brother-in-law, he felt he couldn't kill him as it would follow him everywhere he went, so he was hoping to torture Howard into paying, only to have Howard shrug it off to where...what other choice would he have? His hired thugs are legit gangsters and he finds that out the hard way.

Also did anybody get a Howie butt tattoo after seeing this

"The Stranger" was an A+ musical cue.

Someone said it’s more like Sorcerer than Altman, and that makes sense.

xpost otm. very on point.

Liked this, but it also kind of felt like being yelled at for two hours. My wife was scanning the Rotten Tomatoes audience reviews. It's around 50%, with essentially half the reviews five stars and half one. I look forward to reading some real reviews, though liked the New Yorker profile.

Also did anybody get a Howie butt tattoo after seeing this

Apparently, yes.

my theater was well populated and there was some nervous laughter like...this is sandler so this is supposed to be funny, right?

It made my wife pretty uncomfortable.

I like it when movies feature a host of good/memorable performances by non-professional actors 'cause it makes clear (before everyone forgets again) that effective acting is largely a function of direction and casting

I have said before that acting for the screen isn't really acting, so yeah

If you quizzed a casual moviegoer, there's no way in hell they'd correctly guess which members of the supporting cast were experienced actors.

Tbh until I read that interview I felt sure i’d seen bogosian’s goon in other stuff

same!

Didn't live up to the hype but came pretty fucking close.

Yeah, will agree with this. Kinda odd. Everyone kept saying what you’re all saying here, absolute tension madness, etc. but I wasn’t...consciously feeling it? Yet as soon as it was over I did realize my pulse rate was crazy jacked up so it was almost like I physically felt it more than actively thought about said tension, which was interesting. Like being vaguely spoiled on that front (but not on anything else, certainly not the ending). I did enjoy it well enough but a bit of a bro morality tale, though I like the fact that as noted he dies at his absolute happiest. That said all the acting was great across the board. Even Francesa! Fox'll get attention but I liked Menzel and Hirsch even more. (Stanfield, of course; Garnett did a great job!) Surprising choppy element: Lopatin’s score. I take the point that it's reflective of internal frazzled fractures but it didn't always land? Maybe that was more sound editing than the score itself.

a bit of a bro morality tale

wut

Surprising choppy element: Lopatin’s score. I take the point that it's reflective of internal frazzled fractures but it didn't always land?

I appreciated the score more on second viewing, a gleaming reflection of Howie's total non-registering of anything about his worldview or behavior being off, keeping that sustain pedal on even after it's all over.

wut

Well, maybe poorly phrased, but it felt like a 'wages of sin are death' tale in the end. Totally legit subject, and the whole idea about how you balance out attraction and repulsion to a character like Howard is part of the point, but I dunno, it was like I was watching the whole time going "This guy represents a general mindset that drives me fucking nuts so I'm not THAT invested."

Will definitely say that this is a movie that does that rare thing of accurately capturing what the hell it sounds like at a live music show -- muffled echo and you scream your conversations with others.

It felt like Run Lola Run but with less running.

Having spent some time with both the soundtracks to this and Good Time, I'd say Uncut Gems is more stylistically all over the place, while Good Time feels more of a piece, so I can see how it might feel choppy. Weirdly, I found myself paying much less attention to the soundtrack watching Uncut Gems than with Good Time, which felt more blaring and intrusive to me.

Uncut Gems works a bit better for me as a film overall. Good Time had really cool visuals, crazy situations, and intense music, but it's pretty thin in terms of plot and characterization, and honestly doesn't make tons of sense. Uncut Gems was much more fleshed out and fully realized, the characters had identifiable personalities and arcs that were weirdly relatable. Howard was not at all rational, but I got why he was doing what he was doing, and his world felt very real. I also liked how ambiguous Julia was in terms of where she stood with him.

I don't think calling it a simple morality play is quite fair. Had Howie simply stuck to the banal everyday evil that is the colonialist plunder of his actual job, he'd have been perfectly fine. (I think this is why I love the late scene with KG, where he's able to seduce him out of anger at his exploitation.)

I will say I appreciate that we get zero sense -- none, whatsoever -- of who is he and where he comes from beyond the patently obvious. We get his wife's family in overload (excellently), absolutely nothing about what family he himself might have, much less extended family.

wages of sin are shown on screen is Gaspar Noe’s shtick of recent small theaters imo

everyone in this movie is a bit of a sinner but overall it’s about one man’s inability to just stop the one thing completely fucking his life. it’s frantic but overall, outside of whether basketball goes well, no one is in danger but Howard. the stakes aren’t necessarily small, but in the grand scheme of things only one person is subject to being ruined, bodily harm, etc. unless the bookies are going to go after his family — and that’s never seriously put on the table

it’s one addicted shmuck running a rolling grift

Best short performance: his teenage daughter.

“Ok so just stare at Adam like you stare at your actual dad anytime he says anything…perfect”

Sometimes it's all true to life.

that kitchen scene was incredibly real. think that it’s something i’ve walked through!

Did anybody else read Arno as small-time and in over his head?

release the Arno cut

not out in UK this yet is it... bg, how you see this

son, lemme tell u about this li’l thing called ‘piracy’

all the screeners I found were low res. I do not hate myself that much

It was brave of The Weeknd to appear as a coked-up asshole.

i do xp

I barely notice the difference these days, at least being half blind has some positives!

I like the guy's music, but I did not like this score that much. I thought it was kind of generically generic.

I thought KG did really well in this. Oh, and where has Bogosian been? Anyway, he was the heavy in Speed 2, right? Or the one on a train?

I don't know if this is a morality play, but it did seem to be about karma. It's so intense you almost forget it takes place over just a couple of days, so you get the feeling this may be just another weekend in the guy's life, and that he's gotten away with so much for so long just by hurtling forward. From the cancer scare to the conclusion, you know Howard knows it's just a matter of if, not when, which existentially may be why he does it. There might as well be an early scene where he has his fortune told, doesn't pay, and is cursed by a carny.

Oh, and where has Bogosian been? Anyway, he was the heavy in Speed 2, right? Or the one on a train?

Recurring guest on Succession as kinda-but-not-really-Bernie.

xpost to me, when, not if.

Well, maybe poorly phrased, but it felt like a 'wages of sin are death' tale in the end. Totally legit subject, and the whole idea about how you balance out attraction and repulsion to a character like Howard is part of the point, but I dunno, it was like I was watching the whole time going "This guy represents a general mindset that drives me fucking nuts so I'm not THAT invested."

― Ned Raggett, Monday, December 30, 2019 10:36 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i was investe in large part bc of how fucked up he was. like i kept waiting for the shoe to drop, theres no way he could just keep doubling down like this without some reprecus--ohhhhh ok there it is

my experience was not one of attraction/repulsion but of pure adrenaline

it was precisely because there was such an absence of a moralizing tone in the rest of the movie that the end truly surprised me. I was thinking it would end with him victorious and inevitably upping the stakes once more.

what a safdie film feels like pic.twitter.com/rTecIfzsia

— jara (@suspvria) December 27, 2019

lol yes

an unexpected comparison that occurred to me while watching this is aliens - a relentless forward motion piling disaster after disaster on the protagonist

Any significance to this taking place in 2012?

It was the year that the relevant basketball games occurred in im pretty sure would be the main reason

end of the world

^^^ gets it

the year Adam Sandler secretly died so they had to film the movie real fast

had to do with the stretch of games Garnett played + The Weeknd right as he was becoming big... and A LOT of other crazy bets that parallel the movie in a way, that indie wire interview where they talk about all the different arrangements and versions they went through since 2009 was really... something

aside from those specifics, it also formally means that the audience can be tipped to see it all with hindsight, whatever that amounts to.

from all the talk i was expecting this to be a lot more intense and a lot more funny, but i also watched mad max this week and i dunno i guess i might have missed some of the humor in all the noise of the dialogue. it's not quite a substitute for what i was expecting, but i did find it interesting how un-stagey and un-spectacle-ish the action and the acting continuously were, it seemed like that meant that howard was just in this closed-off world for nearly the entire film. i didn't connect much with it emotionally or viscerally, it actually seemed a little cerebral, maybe as a sensible response on my part to the chaos onscreen, like it's encouraging you to withdraw. i watched some of 'good time' the other day beforehand and i felt like there was supposed to be a noticeable affinity between the safdie brother's character in that and sandler's here, in their affect and the way they are closed in on themselves.

the ending didn't strike me as definitely moralistic or not, one way or the other. (and from the way it had been described i was expecting the concluding game to be WAY more of a peak than it was.) but i thought it was not just idle that the goons and bogosian were trapped in there, so that they were basically forced to take in howard's reactions to the game in light of his bet, with there being no point to offering any of the sort of resistance or pushback to his perpetual thing they had at any other time, since they were depicted as otherwise sensible, non-crazy people, and could see there was nothing to be done right then. which just put pressure on what they might do once something could be done, after howard forced them to endure his moment of agony and exultation. the most interesting thing about that being, you even see them starting to get caught up a bit at the end, don't you? and there's a cut to the son watching the game, with the mom nearby, and the whole sequence seems to mirror the early one where howard won't go upstairs, and then is sneaking a look at the game on his phone with the kid nearby. seems like that all might have to do with why make bogosian a relative, so that there can be a sharp contrast drawn between what family will put up with versus what others will, from a gambling addict.

that all seems like it makes the julia fox character the least obvious to read. rather, not her character but what effect her presence has on the meaning of the above. i notice that she's linked throughout to little rooms and confined spaces.

there’s an interesting feedback loop between Howard progressively shifting money and ramping up the stakes and the escalating anger and violence from the guy who is there to intimidate him. regardless of how the final bet goes, the violence only has one way left to escalate

Yeah, as soon as he flashes the gun and Sandman waves it off, too caught up in his own shit ...

There are definitely other moments where he starts fights he should not be fighting, iirc. Not a coincidence, maybe, that the movie more or less starts up his ass.

xpost yeah, that is what was great and frightening about the last 20 minutes. Arno really wasn't enjoying the violence, he was worn out by it all, he just wanted his money. Whereas his hired goons seemed to be reveling in it.

Howard kept defying them after every form of physical torture, and whereas Arno is thrilled that Howard won the bet and looked relieved, the thugs know that they can't let a loser jewelry salesman embarrass them like that without retaliation (plus i'm guessing their plan was to take Howard's winnings as soon as his mistress comes back).

Goddamn I can't wait to see this again

Actually on my way into the theatre to see again now lol

https://uproxx.com/movies/uncut-gems-scary-guy-interview-keith-williams-richards/

god this dude is so damn lethal. first acting gig!

like some career actors struggle with conveying menace without being too over the top about it, the whole scene in the vestibule, he has these shifting facial expressions, his eyes though consistently staring daggers.

like you can see his rage mixed with a little excitement that he is about to fuck Sandler's shit up when he naively opens the door

oops sorry just saw Simon posted it upthread. but yeah the point remains.

it's another one of the similarities with Altman, mixing real people with movie stars to create a hyperreal effect

The actor that played his girlfriend is a first-timer too, right? That's an important role, since I suppose it's among the closest anyone comes to sympathetic in this film. Kind of ironic that the tough guy and the sensitive girl that drive a lot of the action are both the newbies.

Julia Fox gave one of the year's best supporting performances.

yeah, she was fantastic. the fact that so many new actors / non-actors gave such killer performances in this movie makes me wonder how much of the hype surrounding Sandler's performance is actually deserved, lol (but he was great of course)

I think the role of human pinball required someone with a certain degree of charisma, at the least to overcome the character's off-putting nature, which in turn required a name/star, especially not one associated with being tough. But while I think Sandler was great, I do agree his performance is a tiny bit overrated, since we already knew he could act (Punchdrunk, Funny People, that one where he plays a chef -Spanglish?) and some other actor who could convincingly play a slimy schlub could probably have pulled it off just as easily. (Didn't they say they wanted Jonah Hill?) I will say, regardless, that Sandler was as perfectly *cast* as those non-actors (and actors). They should give a Best Casting Oscar.

supposedly the role was more or less written for Fox, then in development financiers wanted a "name" instead, but she ended up winning out against a large number of competitors

A large part of acting is being natural, and some first-timers embody that real well. Especially in a filmed medium where you get multiple takes.

But the Safdies probably helped by letting them be comfortable rather than being overbearing on set.

Also still LOLing at

"Jews and colon cancer, I mean what the fuck. I thought we were the Chosen people."

KG was fine in his scenes, certainly good enough, but what was truly uncanny was the seamless folding in of his "performance" in the game footage.

KG is one of the weirdest mfs to ever play the game, a god

josh otm re:casting. Sandler is great in this but i think some of the rapturous praise for his performance has been a little over the top, its not really an exceptional stretch for him to play an annoying perpetual adolescent who yells all the time

lol yeah he wasnt v out of character in those scenes. the one time i was like dang sandler is killing this was when he was hunkering down in his office after getting his nose broken and falling apart

It's more that this film plays to his strengths than anything.

But a lot of what he does well in this film is the sliminess of the character. He is very believable as that one family member you have, that neo-Willy Loman who prattles on about himself and all these big deals he's making, and they're mostly bullshit. The guy who will bum ten bucks off you and treat you like you're the asshole for asking for it back.

His speech, outside of the yelling, is different than other Sandler performances. His voice is grittier, his line readings a bit more deliberately paced; he has to control EVERY conversation

While the role matches what a younger Sandler would've brought to it, the age, weight, and some acquaintance with the horrors of families give this performance a Method inflection.

I don't feel the need to say "he's great but" tbh; he's fantastic. a more impressive performance than Punch Drunk Love, imo, which mostly used familiar tics but warped the environment around him

Tim Heidecker still has the definitive take on this movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrvcFlnwPEo&feature=youtu.be&t=292

Pretty sure I won't see anything better in movies this year than E Bogosian's incredulous face

this reminded me a lot of Noe's Enter The Void w/ its pulse and palette, psych landscapes, the headlong impending disaster

I appreciated the relentlessness but feel like this could have benefited from a beat here and there...the few moments of Howard wheeling his trash cans to the curb were effective like this, ratcheting the tension up w/o all the yelling

I also enjoyed the ridiculous way Idina Menzel ran to the car.

She was funny

"you are the most annoying person I have ever met" very possibly the line delivery of the movie

followed up by salt in the wound dgaf prom dress modeling, oof

bat mitzvah dress modeling?

i think yes?

too much shouting

IMO Howard shoulda bought KG's bodyguards

Would’ve been out of character

But he'd be alive!

Btw what was the place Howie stopped at on the way home to his apartment? He had a green bag and Julia came in with the same bag

Smith and Wollensky steakhouse

Thank you!

50 minutes with Sandler and KG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Qp1uwri_M&feature=emb_title

Saw this yesterday in London at the first of two sold-out showings at the Prince Charles Cinema.

What an exhausting film! It's very immersive and believable, but also like being trapped with people whose only range of social interaction is constantly 'Fuck you! No Fuck you!' for 2 hours.

Really glad I saw it with an audience as it did highlight the elements of humour that I'd probably have missed watching it by myself. I thought Idina Menzel's acting was especially great, particularly being able to show derision, bewilderment, and disgust through facial expressions alone.

kg's irl intensity was a good fit with the vibe of the movie. so many fucks per minute. it felt like half of the characters had the job of keeping the howard ratners of the world out of places they're not supposed to be.

i get nervous all the time watching movies, but this one didn't feel physically stressful to me, not really sure why. though once he won the bet i did have a brief thought of "oh god, you let them in, not out?"

This is an appreciation post for the auction house receptionist.

Voice on the phone was Tilda Swinton, iirc.

yep. I have felt like her many a time.

You run an auction house?

no, talking to someone who is a complete asshole who wants to be catered to over everybody else and finally just blowing up at them and saying "I HOPE TO NEVER WORK WITH YOU AGAIN!"

I loved the receptionist calling her and being like "oh no it's a separate question"

The opal reappraisal was some kind of bullshit, if you ask me. He was right to be pissed.

xp it's this person

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYwdWlcO43Y

xpost wasn't the original appraisal just them going off of his unverified numbers on good faith, then realizing he had grossly overestimated the value once they did their own appraisal?

I mean they didn't even have a picture of the item, so I assumed they literally rushjobbed it since he gave it to them 5 pm on a Friday for a Monday auction.

Yeah, he admits he didn't have time to show them to his guy, so he was just guessing their value, more or less.

I think they lowballed it

I loved the receptionist calling her and being like "oh no it's a separate question"

― papa stank (Neanderthal), Saturday, January 4, 2020 1:12 PM (seventeen minutes ago)

vg++ moment

They lowballed it because they had to rush through an appraisal in a quarter of the time they usually have and didn't have the time to get multiple appraisals done because of that.

It's not like he ran his own appraisal and they chose to go with theirs. He just told them someone he knew valued it at that range.

Given that he was a bit of an asshole to them, I'm sure that didn't help matters.

Loved his strong denial of not getting his pool resurfaced followed up by a hasty walk back on that claim.

Love that this ended with "L'Amour Toujours." Saw it with my husband and that's, like, our song :')

finally saw it today. i have many biases in favor of me liking the movie (kg, celtics, safdies) but i did like the movie quite a bit. i did find the pacing in the middle was a bit sluggish but the big speech to garnett forward was absolutely amazing stuff. i know enough about how they work to anticipate the ending but still got sucked in to howard's gambling high.

josh's knack for working with nonactors makes me wonder why more directors don't try it.

My friend who reads every interview about every movie says they basically tell ppl “just be yourself”

makes sense; josh is pretty good at inspiring confidence

I think for this to work consistently you’d have to employ their approach to shooting—using long lenses, loose blocking, writing for crosstalk, allowing for improv etc., all things that probably help non-actors “forget” they’re acting. Not easy for sure.

That New Yorker profile was pretty illuminating. I guess Josh hangs back and yells direction, while Benny works up close and offers quieter suggestions?

He was doing crazy parlay betting where each of the three events (opening tip, Celts winning straight up, Garnett hitting certain threshold of points plus rebounds) had to all occur or else he would lose the bet.

Opening tip probably the riskiest cos of how random it can be.

― looking for Mon in Alderaan places (Neanderthal), Saturday, December 28, 2019 4:52 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

I found it truly insane to think anyone would actually wager on this until they played the actual game footage in the film and I saw he was jumping against Spencer Hawes.

UNCUT GEMS [emoji spoilers]

🇪🇹⛰⛏👷🏿‍♂️👷🏿‍♂️

🚫✂️💎

👷🏿‍♂️🤜🏾🤛🏾👷🏿‍♂️

👨🏻‍🦱🕶💻💬🚫✂️💎

👨🏻‍🦱🕶🤑

🐠📦=🚫✂️💎

👨🏻‍🦱🕶💦

💎🔭⛹🏾‍♂️💬💰

👨🏻‍🦱🕶🚫

⛹🏾‍♂️💬🏀💍

👨🏻‍🦱🕶🤜🏻🤛🏾⛹🏾‍♂️

👰🏻💬👎

👨🏻‍🦱🕶😕

💪🏻➡️🚗🚫👖

👨🏻‍🦱🕶☹️

👱🏻‍♀️🍑🍆👱🏾‍♂️🎙

👨🏻‍🦱🕶😩

⛹🏾‍♂️💬👨🏻‍🦱🕶=🤪

👨🏻‍🦱🕶💬👨🏻‍🦱=👨🏻‍🦱.🤪=👨🏻‍🦱🥇

👱🏻‍♀️🍑😍

👨🏻‍🦱🕶💬🍑👱🏻‍♀️🚁🎰

⛹🏾‍♂️2️⃣6️⃣

👨🏻‍🦱🕶💦

🔫💪🏻

— Eric Allen Hatch (@ericallenhatch) January 6, 2020

there's no colonoscopy emoji?

haha no but Eric could've gotten something together probably

Saw this again today at one of those CineBistro theaters. those places have INCREDIBLE screens, I still don't understand the appeal of eating a full ass meal during a movie, but whatever. It was awesome again, and I kept what was said about Arno ITT in mind, him sort of realizing he's in way over his head. I guess the ending caught me so off guard the first time I forgot that Arno ends up dead too!

there's a Mohegan Sun commercial early on when Dinah is watching reality TV.

Didn't really notice anything else the second time, felt more calm for obvious reasons, but yeah that last parlay sequence, my fists are in the air and I'm screaming yes.

Uncut Gems (2019) pic.twitter.com/8uNJt0JnSY

— Spencer (@TheLonelyPhoton) January 7, 2020

I really feel like Keith Williams Richards had to have gotten into some crazy shit as a kid.

everyone named keith richards has been involved in deeply shady stuff iirc

I still don't understand the appeal of eating a full ass meal during a movie

Neither do I, but I am amused at the thought of a viewer swallowing his fourth bite of burger when Howie's insides fade into view.

via the cinema thread:
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/adam-sandler-confronts-film-critics-mean-nyfcc-1202201523/

“I can’t thank these guys enough for getting critics to say something nice about me for the first time in 30 fucking years,” Sandler said as the NYFCC crowd erupted into applause.

who could have guessed that giving good performances in well-directed movies with good scripts would generate more critical plaudits that sleepwalking through movies you make solely so you and your friends can go on vaction in luxury resorts together

I still don't understand the appeal of eating a full ass

humans can have a little ass, as a treat

good boning!

i think A.S. was referring to early masterworks like Happy Gilmore

As for what it’s like working with Josh and Benny at once, Sandler compared the experience to having a threesome. “You can’t look like one is giving you more pleasure than the other,” the actor said letting out a laugh.

haven't seen this yet cuz i haven't been able to make a discount screening yet but thx for spoilers

You don’t have to click on the thread, bubbe!

the subtitles for #UncutGems didn't help me any. pic.twitter.com/o6lGj1tqDY

— icee (@theWallpaperHat) January 7, 2020

omfg 🤣🤣🤣

Lol the car dialogue would be hell for captioning

The throat punch is so Savatage

Jfc, metal autocorrect.

SAVAGE

“I can’t thank these guys enough for getting critics to say something nice about me for the first time in 30 fucking years”

friendship ended with PTA

now JOSH_BENNY is my best friend

my brain is still stuck on tim heidecker doing a sandler voice and whining "oh nooo, my gems! they're uncut!"

On this week's podcast, @JOSH_BENNY talk to @NickPinkerton about the New York films that influenced their full-throttle Diamond District-set thriller UNCUT GEMS: https://t.co/U94m781Rn7 pic.twitter.com/QfP1sqp7pt

— Film Comment Magazine (@FilmComment) January 8, 2020

the English hatred of Sandler comedies is so funny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XB6s0PpGPY

I mean I haven't seen any of his recent Netflix comedies but Little Nicky, Billy Madison, Big Daddy, and Happy Gilmore are all classics.

friendship ended with PTA

now JOSH_BENNY is my best friend

lol, A24 had pta talking to josh and benny on its podcast a few weeks ago, and obviously they talked about sandler a bunch.

https://a24films.com/notes/2019/12/seduce-and-destroy-with-josh-safdie-benny-safdie-and-paul-thomas-anderson

I liked this a lot even though it gave me a tension headache. I don't like Oneotrix's music at all, in fact, I'd probably say I'm strongly averse to it but in the context of this movie it's really really good.

The Safdie's have an amazing feel for ugliness - ugly people, ugly textures, ugly design - that is refreshing given that so many young filmmakers are coasting on being able to make beautiful images easily through technology, filters, post-processing et al. Sandler's glasses are a special achievement in ugliness. Benny Safdie is a good looking man who looks awful in Good Time - I'm sure his skin isn't the texture that it is in GT, what did they do to him? They even managed to make Pattinson look horrible in GT.

I love the actress that plays Sandler's wife and the actress that plays his girlfriend is pretty great as well.

grammar Q/complete derail:

Should it be "the actress that plays Sandler's wife" or "the actress who plays Sandler's wife"?

It’s “whomst’d”

:D

the actress that played his wife is Idina Menzel

I wasn't familiar at all but having looked at her wiki it seems like it may be a triumph of (uncanny) casting?

she doesn't do a lot of film, outside of her recent Frozen vocal contributions, I think the last live-action film she appeared in was 2007's "Enchanted". Was very inspired casting, played to her strengths.

I guess there was the TV movie Beaches

In a film with a lot of very good things going on she really delivered without being showy at all.

Saw this yesterday, thought it was excellent.

Serious question(with spoilers if someone reading this thread still hasn’t seen the movie, somehow):

is this the first time a character played by Adam Sandler has died in a movie?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IpQwq4IJ8A

His character in click was a worse guy

click, more like dick

saw this this afternoon. a genuinely, deeply unsettling experience, and its claustrophobic freneticism captures the horrors of addiction so well. it’s telling that both times he scores big it’s taken away almost immediately. I do think there is some tragedy to the story

incredible casting/performances all around, julia fox and keith williams richards especially

Julia Fox's first acting job! incredible!

same with richards. credit to the directors too, obviously

now I need to read that kalefah profile

I think the film captures the way no matter how far your addiction has made you completely dysfunctional and a complete shadow of yourself - you just keep plodding on unaware of how completely gone you are - just needing one more punt to pull you out of the shit and even then if that comes off, you'll try and do it again! It captures that mania so well.

same with richards.

amazing, and i spent a lot of the film wondering what i'd seen him in before too.

Your local Italian restaurant with a curtained off back room

can't wait for this to hit Netflix so i can rescreen

The first time I rewatched I kept hearing pained "oohs" from the audience. Especially at the throat-punch. That was almost as fun as the movie itself.

this was really good, though maybe a hair less good than Good Time. mostly that was due to GT being more of a surprise and them repeating some of the same tricks here, but also the 0PN score worked much better in GT than in UG. i was less stressed by UG but again that might have been going in with expectations of stress. the auction was intense though.

is there a film term for when the action of a scene ends but the scene keeps going? there were a couple of good examples like that here, mainly the girlfriend walking back to the club after their big fight but also sandler left in his kitchen and futilely trying to put foil back on a cake.

i really like eric bogosian in this, he looked like a greasy corpse. this was such a sweaty movie

great acting all around, i really appreciate the safdies' approach to naturalistic acting/nonactors, until you get to the tanned creep at the casino at the end who's like a weird mickey rourke cartoon

I keep cracking up thinking about the scene where Howard's in the closet texting while getting progressively more giddy

(and horny)

that was so good!

The most exhausting two hours of yelling and hysterics I've seen since The Wolf of Wall Street. I think it's supposed to look back to a certain kind of '70s urban realism--Lumet, Chayefsky, James Toback maybe, the John G. Avildsen of Joe and Save the Tiger--but I bet they'd all feel like Bergman if you were to watch any of that and this back-to-back. I can't think of a single positive thing to say about it (including Sandler's passable turn as John Turturro), although I hope "Go fuck the Weeknd" goes on to become a standard line whenever movie couples argue.

Damn!

https://media.giphy.com/media/QU4ewgcmdcsObx9CG7/giphy.gif

lol

I respect clem emptying the clip like that

I mean it's nice to see some alternate takes ITT

clem's take aligns with most of my friends tbh

Really wonder if the goyim can rly “get” this movie

It's one of those great movies I would never recommend to at least half the people in my life (and already have to the rest).

I’m personally evolving past “I didn’t really feel that stressed out by this movie” to “this is a perfectly normal movie and every other movie just doesn’t have enough shouting and Moogs”

i loved this and have recommended "the lighthouse" before this to anyone, based on this film's intensity.

also, i want to know the safdie backstory to the casting of the robert evans as a gambler tribute character.

lol

I respect clem emptying the clip like that

― k3vin k., Monday, January 13, 2020 10:21 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Yes 😂

I think it's a more effective and nuanced critique of capitalism than Parasite, for example.

what’s the nuanced critique of capitalism in ‘guy has a gambling addiction’?

the opal is a priceless, spiritual object. Howard believes in its powers, even if it he wants to make $$$ off of it. but he acquires it through dirty means, and even though he believes in its powers, he doesn't deserve it.

This isn't a straight up gambling addiction movie, there aren't enough of those.

C’mon this is a movie about the struggle of the Jewish people to survive in a world that hates them

idk that howard believes the opal has supernatural powers, but he does observe that kg believes in it

i thought u were gonna say something about kg grilling him about making a profit off the opal. but tbh that scene felt kinda tacked on to me

It's a movie about the perils of wearing ugly glasses.

this is a movie about the 2008 global financial crisis

bingo

Really wonder if the goyim can rly “get” this movie

― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Monday, January 13, 2020 11:54 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Otm

will watching this movie induce a panic attack y/n

I really want to see it but all the talk about how anxiety-inducing it is has me wary

For me it was an adrenaline rush, not anxiety so much.

also, i want to know the safdie backstory to the casting of the robert evans as a gambler tribute character.

https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/uncut-gems-handsome-older-man-wayne-diamond-new-legacy

the instagram linked from that piece is incredible: https://www.instagram.com/thewaynediamond/?igshid=118y0dki6rycx

references to the film's anxiety inducing capacities are greatly exaggerated. it's more of a thrill ride.

xxpost Thanks for linking that--I assumed the character was a washed-up 70s rock star, with ample royalties and zero critical credibility.

That dude was not acting at all. If anything he was toning it down

And Wayne Diamond totally could have designed Dinah's vintage bat mitzvah dress. An aging garmento backstory fits the character.

HUNT: Anything aside from Uncut Gems stand out as an experience in your life post-retirement?

DIAMOND: I don’t want to do anything that has to do with money. Nothing. You don’t bring out the best of yourself. I want to do things that are creative. The art world, I like. I wanna have a good fuckin’ time. I wanna laugh, I wanna drink, I wanna be with people. Happy people, not assholes. We got too many assholes. New York not so much, but in America, we got that scumbag in the White House. When he’s gone, the world will be a better place.

This guy sounds like fun

i don't disagree with anything in that paragraph!

so popular here they’ve moved it from the second screen to the largest screen at the local independent. that’s a lot of nights ruined

the gem's powers are real! they have to be. the movie would be meaningless otherwise- it's about capitalism splitting the oppressed up and setting them against each other. Howard puts a price on a priceless object and pays the ultimate price.

Monkey paw

no Oscar nominiees for this. not surprising, but it is yet another example to how worthless the Oscars are in general

Keith Richards Williams for Best Goon

"The most exhausting two hours of yelling and hysterics I've seen since The Wolf of Wall Street. I think it's supposed to look back to a certain kind of '70s urban realism--Lumet, Chayefsky, James Toback maybe, the John G. Avildsen of Joe and Save the Tiger"

maybe the only thing in common is the yelling becuase Wolf Of.. is a really bad movie. No wonder Scorsese is the producer here, he loves those so called realistic crime/mob movies (he also produced Gomorra for example). I do think it owes more to Cassavetes than anything.

Bad news: Sandman gets no love from the Academy.
Good news: Sandman can stop wearing suits.
Congrats to all my friends who got nominated, especially Mama. pic.twitter.com/o1Ep3E7GRB

— Adam Sandler (@AdamSandler) January 13, 2020

the gem's powers are real! they have to be. the movie would be meaningless otherwise- it's about capitalism splitting the oppressed up and setting them against each other. Howard puts a price on a priceless object and pays the ultimate price.

― flappy bird, Tuesday, January 14, 2020 12:44 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

who are the oppressed being split up, the diamond jeweler and nba player? just about every person in the movie is rich. howard leverages bets on bets and (SPOILER) gets killed by a loan shark

i loved the movie, but imo it's just not a nuanced critique of capitalism. at best it slips in a blunt critique of neo-colonialism with the blood diamond stuff

who are the oppressed being split up

presumably the Ethiopian miners?

I do think it owes more to Cassavetes than anything.
― nostormo

Yes, very much so--who is also tough going for me (documented in a Cassavetes thread here somewhere), so it stands to reason I'd feel the same about Uncut Gems.

presumably the Ethiopian miners?

― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Tuesday, January 14, 2020 2:03 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

so the movie is about capitalism splitting up ethiopian miners and setting them against each other? they're only in it for like 5 seconds!

idk man it wasn't my argument!

I have already posted the correct interpretation of this movie for anyone desperate to interpret it as being "about" something

haha i like your interpretation

It's a (shallow) satire about Capitalism, (comparing the images of the opal to his colonscopy etc). It's a great movie regarsing technique/directing/camera. Besides that, pretty shallow imo

it's a movie about wanting to fight the weeknd, and i can relate.

"he's gonna be really big, even though he's canadian"

BLACK JEWS!

an ilxor posted a great review on Letterboxd about this I will find it

a cut gem would have easily identifiable facets but this one's uncut

part of me suspects clem is correct that this wouldn’t hold up to its shouty 70s forebears, and part of the reason we all love it so much is we’ve been starved of gritty urban lowstakes crime thrillers for so long. looking forward to their 48hrs reboot

also i am def on team anxiety inducing. i loved it but was itching to scream ‘shut the fuck up!!!’ throughout. 2 people in the group of like 7 that i went to see it with had to leave the theatre before the end

This was a complete joy to watch and think about later.

howie was clearly a character that needed to shut the fuck up. but i'm on team adrenaline-not-anxiety.

references to the film's anxiety inducing capacities are greatly exaggerated. it's more of a thrill ride.

myself and the stranger next to me kept moaning or facepalming or bugging our eyes out at each other or saying "oh no" whenever Sandler tripled down did basically anything throughout

there was no doubt he was going to continue to make the worst decisions but I still deluded myself into thinking, when he finally reacquired the stone before the big auction, that he was going to be able to pay off his existing debts. and, because the film wasn't going to stop his gambling, give him a little extra to gamble with

by the end I realized that even if he'd gotten the full million he was hoping for, he'd still be blowing every cent of it gambling because this train doesn't stop and only goes in one direction

"Julia...don't leave the casino yet."

chasing that big win like a dog chasing a car. no idea what to do if he catches it

really though, there is no "big win" because there must always be another bet

yup. that's why I had to ultimately stop, and my stakes were uhh, significantly lower

Gotta watch this at home tonight with the volume maxed up

this movie was a lot

I think we can all agree on that much

It just occurred to me that the Weeknd is of Ethiopian descent. Build a theory around that.

when howie tells julia to "go fuck the weeknd," he too is spiritually "fucking the weeknd" when he bilks his ancestral people out of their natural resources.

the gem is functionally real, Howard and KG believe in it, there's that awesome montage right before KG breaks the glass, plus the opening and the beginning, there is something to the spiritual significance of a gem that unites black and jewish people

Absolutely loved this! I'm so glad that I caught it at the cinema too - it was awesome to get completely caught up in the tension of it all on the big screen with big sound. I really want to see it again.

Maybe expectations and watching it quietly at home by myself made an impact, but my second viewing was far from anxiety-laden? If anything, I appreciated how well-paced the school play sequence was, for example.

lol what an icon

Julia Fox started an Insta gram AMA yesterday, answered 2 entire questions, then returned today answering a 3rd question with the explanation, "my sincerest apologies but i completely lost interest in the AMA." pic.twitter.com/gfOe3lkrTn

— Davis. (@realdaveimboden) January 14, 2020

perfect

there is something to the spiritual significance of a gem that unites black and jewish people

Historically Jews and African-Americans have been accused of failing to assimilate into mainstream (Protestant) American culture, even as they are scorned for materialism and vulgarity (one of those ways of keeping up the barriers). Throughout the movie I saw examples of jewelry, clothing, and décor that seriously offended my taste, but I don't doubt they reflect the subcultures' time, place, and values.

Then at the auction house every employee speaks with a posh accent and the colo(u)red gemstone specialist doesn't agree with Howard's valuation of the opal. Wotta wet blanket.

https://www.gq.com/story/uncut-gems-furniture

bloody great piece that, thanks!

It's a kyber crystal. The championship rings are trophies of dead Jedi. The jeweled furby is an inversion of Ewok veneration of C3PO.

There was so much unpleasant yelling and overtalking but that's part of what creates the tension, and then in the quieter moments I'd be thinking "where's the tension?" Good Time was similar but flat-out great, this one I'm pretty ambivalent. Last third was extremely good and pretty much saved it for me. I probably admire this movie more than liked it: the idea of building a movie around KG and his 2012 playoff performance, using Sandler and a newcomer in lead roles

It wasn’t built around that basketballer or game btw, they just picked the game once they’d auditioned various basketballers

yeah, it can't have been that hard to retrofit the scenario around the game they chose. gambling is wacked out enough to where you could easily find a bunch of interesting parlays

and hardcore gamblers like that don't require it to be the playoffs. they're the dudes who will bet on like the 27th game of the season with crazy lightning bets

I appreciated the post-game interview where KG is asked about his playing and he says something "I just had to been my concentration on the rock"

The integration of the in-game footage was stunning imo

jesus christ autocorrect did a thing

he says something like "I just had to keep my concentration on the rock"

for a little while I thought the entire parlay was going well but KG needs another rebound or point to win the final part of the parlay and he gets the final rebound and Howard goes nuts and the game ends, and then teh scorekeeper officially amends it to a "team rebound", thus screwing Howard, and Arno's crew kills him, then goes to kill the scorekeeper.

KG really deserves a lot of credit for his performance. He did such a good job. I don't think Kobe or whoever would've had that same kind of manic intensity.

Also, the 2012 Celtics were sick af. Pierce and Rondo totally could carry their own movie franchises.

Yea he did an incredible job xpost

These are interviews of greatness.

https://www.vulture.com/2020/01/uncut-gems-cast-mitchell-stewart-wenig.html

I choose to believe those are the actual Safdie brothers

amazing

omg

saw this today, liked it. the ending was excellent. one of the great basketball films

man i didn't realize keith richard williams was another non-actor. he looks like a character actor you would've seen in a hundred movies, and he's so good

I forgot about the threat he made after Garnett's bodyguards roughed up him. something like how he can't wait to draw his chalk outline or dig his grave or something.

guess he made good on that one!

New short from the Safdies starring Sandler and Benny

https://vimeo.com/382811408

Literal or no, Goldman vs. Silverman might be the most Jewish title ever.

so good

NYer piece said that truck at the end was just parked there with those lights flashing on it, Benny just spontaneously climbed in

curly gray-haired brothers get a vulture interview

https://www.vulture.com/2020/01/uncut-gems-cast-mitchell-stewart-wenig.html

These are interviews of greatness.

https://www.vulture.com/2020/01/uncut-gems-cast-mitchell-stewart-wenig.html

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, January 16, 2020 10:29 AM (two hours ago)

deserves to be posted twice imo

fair, and now I posted it a third time technically

Goldman V Silverman is good! Benny Safdie is mega charismatic.

I’d like to start very generally: How did you get involved with the movie?
Well, maybe you could ask me questions.

Sure, yeah. Did you audition for this?
I auditioned for the movie, but I was in a prior movie working with the Safdies before.

Cool. Tell me about the audition.
The audition was with, I think, Jennifer, a young lady.

Okay. And do you remember what you read, or what the experience was like?
No, I don’t remember.

“So when Amos came on set, we were talking, he asked if Sandler was there yet, and I said he’d be there soon. He said, ‘We were gonna work together a long time ago. Whatever happened to that golf movie?’”

Wonderful conversation on the Jewishness of Uncut Gems

https://jewishcurrents.org/an-unserious-man/

V good

Here’s a tease of one of the songs from Stuart (and to some@extent Mitch) Wenig’s UNCUT GEMS full 10 track album made for the film... spoiler: it’s amazing. R. Stevie Moore-esque pic.twitter.com/hpbfE9AR0g

— SAFDIE (@JOSH_BENNY) January 17, 2020

untouched by man

heard a clip of that same song in a podcast and was o_O that Stuart just cranked out a disc of music "they could use in the movie"

amazing side talent on these guys

i felt a pang all the times he questioned why they didn't want to use it in the movie :(

Very good. I don't understand people who "couldn't take the intensity" though. Sandler is excellent, but I can't get *that* invested in ambulatory garbage.

I think their last one was its equal? Except maybe not quite cuz Benny didn't have to act.

didn't realize Francesa was not gonna play himself; perfect casting tho

I really wish I'd have taken a moment to see this with an audience.

I saw it with a miniscule matinee audience ($10 cheap)

Opening title music was very early '90s cable

I like Good Time, but it's pretty much a bunch of crazy scenarios strung together with little rhyme or reason. Uncut Gems has several actual characters with legible motivations.

Yeah, I'm also in the camp of this one being a major step up.

Opening title music was very early '90s cable

totally agree with moodles post there. this was a whole experience.

I loved the pawn broker who was concerned about whether Ratner was doing okay. This after Ratner had surely tried to screw him a hundred times.

Saw it again today at the big fancy theater. Still excellent. I’m likely about to repeat myself but the opening drone shot is still impressive, great timing and choreography. The whole Ethiopia sequence felt important to me this time now that I knew what all comes afterwards: a dose of the real world, before the gem refracts space and time around it.

Julia’s walkaway after the fight with Howard after the nightclub is a wonderful shot, her yelling at people.

Only clumsy thing I thought was KG in the locker room at halftime fingering the stone, it breaks the illusion created by the game footage a bit too much and there’s no teammates there, just the coach in VO, so it feels super stagey. And we already know he likes the rock!

“who’d you call, your Boston friends? Is this your guy?” a fine moment.

this was great: well cast, well acted, well written, well paced, well directed. Sound design was A+, really captured the NYC experience through and through. my gal lasted about 45 minutes and did the "too stressful" thing.

literally everyone in this is playing at top level but bogosian was downright genuinely creepy.

I would like for their next movie to have one of the following settings:
- oil rig
- whaling vessel circa 1850-1880
- Florida

sorcerer remake

RE: seeing this with an audience, my DC-area audience full of the usual yammering old people didn’t appreciate it. I’m sure they resent movies where the characters talk more than they do. I wasn’t surprised to learn afterward about the low audience scores.

*SPOILERS*

Probably a dumb question, but why does Arno's pal shoot Howard and Arno at the end? Was it just because he was pissed off about being locked up and wanted to rob them?

Er yeah. Try locking an enraged gangster in a cupboard for a bit and see if it does you any favours lol

- oil rig
- whaling vessel circa 1850-1880
- Florida

Great ideas, love it, we can work something up, love your whole vibe. One quick note: can the oil rig / whaling vessel circa 1850-1880 / Florida be in New York City?

gotta be florida

This after Ratner had surely tried to screw him a hundred times.

Well, it's 47th Street.

Was Garnett's postgame interview where he mentions "the rock" shot for the film? If not, wtf?

"rock" is a common slang term for the basket ball

*SPOILERS*

Probably a dumb question, but why does Arno's pal shoot Howard and Arno at the end? Was it just because he was pissed off about being locked up and wanted to rob them?

― paolo, Sunday, February 2, 2020 5:53 AM bookmarkflaglink

I feel like it's that, but also, he considers Howard a little peckerwood that has defied Arno and him throughout the movie, no matter what violent action or threat they make. so the motive for him is easy.

as for Arno, I feel like he shot him because he tries to escape, and perhaps he thinks Arno might go to the police, but also, at this point he also probably considers Arno weak for letting Howard walk all over him. probably figures hey, for all the trouble this prick has put me through, let me kill him too, then we'll get not only the money that was originally owed Arno, but maybe the million that Howard's girlfriend just won.

*SPOILERS*

Probably a dumb question, but why does Arno's pal shoot Howard and Arno at the end? Was it just because he was pissed off about being locked up and wanted to rob them?

― paolo, Sunday, February 2, 2020 5:53 AM bookmarkflaglink

I feel like it's that, but also, he considers Howard a little peckerwood that has defied Arno and him throughout the movie, no matter what violent action or threat they make. so the motive for him is easy.

as for Arno, I feel like he shot him because he tries to escape, and perhaps he thinks Arno might go to the police, but also, at this point he also probably considers Arno weak for letting Howard walk all over him. probably figures hey, for all the trouble this prick has put me through, let me kill him too, then we'll get not only the money that was originally owed Arno, but maybe the million that Howard's girlfriend just won.

*SPOILERS*

Probably a dumb question, but why does Arno's pal shoot Howard and Arno at the end? Was it just because he was pissed off about being locked up and wanted to rob them?

― paolo, Sunday, February 2, 2020 5:53 AM bookmarkflaglink

I feel like it's that, but also, he considers Howard a little peckerwood that has defied Arno and him throughout the movie, no matter what violent action or threat they make. so the motive for him is easy.

as for Arno, I feel like he shot him because he tries to escape, and perhaps he thinks Arno might go to the police, but also, at this point he also probably considers Arno weak for letting Howard walk all over him. probably figures hey, for all the trouble this prick has put me through, let me kill him too, then we'll get not only the money that was originally owed Arno, but maybe the million that Howard's girlfriend just won.

*SPOILERS*

Probably a dumb question, but why does Arno's pal shoot Howard and Arno at the end? Was it just because he was pissed off about being locked up and wanted to rob them?

― paolo, Sunday, February 2, 2020 5:53 AM bookmarkflaglink

I feel like it's that, but also, he considers Howard a little peckerwood that has defied Arno and him throughout the movie, no matter what violent action or threat they make. so the motive for him is easy.

as for Arno, I feel like he shot him because he tries to escape, and perhaps he thinks Arno might go to the police, but also, at this point he also probably considers Arno weak for letting Howard walk all over him. probably figures hey, for all the trouble this prick has put me through, let me kill him too, then we'll get not only the money that was originally owed Arno, but maybe the million that Howard's girlfriend just won.

lol

I think the moral of this story is that the consequences of your actions always take their toll. You can’t outthink, out perform or out experience what’s been promised. Everybody gets what they were told they were gonna get.

Except maybe kg but he is kg!

(Good fake out on the cancer scare btw... what IS it about Jews and colon cancer anyway?)

My companions at my rewatch advanced the “the gem is actually magic” proposition and the biopsy coming back clean seems like part of that thread to me thinking about it now. On the other hand if you attribute Howie’s charmed life to the power of Howie it might be that.

Lol stupid reposts

Big 'King Of Comedy' energy from this

At the end when Arno and the heavies are staring daggers at Howie, who's just oblivious to anything but the high of chasing his compulsion, I was like, what does this remind me of? And it's Jerry Lewis, staring daggers at Sandra Bernhard and Deniro, duct-taped on the table as these two powerless New Yorkers career off into their shoot-the-moon scheme, enacting their fantasy of control for one shining moment

I thought one point of the end is that Howard has been playing this like a game all along, but to the heavies with guns, this is not a game. That's why they have guns. So he thinks he's "won," his brother in law thinks he's "won," but these bad guys are bad guys and they don't give a shit. In a way when they take them out, *they've* won the game *they've* been playing.

Arno’s goon is just a hired goon, though. It’s not going to do great things for his feedback on goon Yelp that he murdered the last dude to hire him

who would leave the feedback tho

Hired goon or no, he clearly doesn't have an off switch. Kind of reminds me of, I dunno, "Out of Sight?" Where Albert Brooks throws his money around to pay for protection/hired goons, somehow not realizing that any allegiance is to that money, not to the man. Arno is not a real heavy - he doesn't have the (lack of) heart. And Howard might be a selfish, compulsive, self-destructive gambler, but he still cares about people, too. The heavy, though, he's truly bad, enough so that killing someone out of anger and frustration is worth more to him than whatever he is being paid. The jewelry he snags right after is just an afterthought.

Arno clearly got cold feet and was a liability, dude made a snap decision and killed him to prevent him from talking. honestly a snmart goon move imo

I kind of got the impression that the goons didn't have any particular allegiance to Arno. I imagined that Arno was like a wannabe gangster who probably was connected to an actual gangster who ordered his goons to provide Arno with some muscle, but they ultimately saw that Arno was full of shit.

and a pussy, as Howie correctly pointed out

There are definitely some hints that arno doesn't quite have the stomach for mob life.

Throughout. Exclusively.

It seemed like he was using the apparatus of enforcement to lean on Howie but but wasn't down with the actual ethos

You can just keep letting someone who owes you money slide! You've got to send a message. It was clear no message was going to be sent, no code followed, just... let the degenerate gambler pay us now. I can understand why his tough guy decided "fuck that" and killed

The heavy, though, he's truly bad, enough so that killing someone out of anger and frustration is worth more to him than whatever he is being paid.

After weeks or months of seeing Arno give Howard repeated, unwarranted second chances, and then being locked in a diving bell with a sweaty Bogosian for hours and listening to Adam Sandler free-extemporise throughout, who amongst us etc etc

xxxxxxpost

I thought Sandler was alright but replacement-level, basically. He was inconsistent. I loved his odd lilting salesman cadence in the shop. At times he was str8 Gilbert Gottfried. You have to wonder what Julia, a smoking hot, tender, cool, caring young woman sees in this guy. Felt uncomfortably like a bit of wishful thinking.

Those two thoughts are unconnected, I guess - sorry i've wodged them into the same graf

I actually didn’t find the julia relationship too implausible. don’t think we got too much background on her but she is young, presumably very fucked up, howard seemed to treat her well and had money, etc. I actually found their relationship pretty affecting

he's rich(ish), keeps her out of trouble, does weird sex stuff she likes

also he's not a cokehead unlike the other guys she meets in her job as a coke dealer

Sure - and I wasn't really bothered by it - lord knows I've seen enough real relationships where I'm like 'huh?'

They kept her feelings about Howie pretty ambiguous.

And we never find out what happens to the money

Howie's Angel carts it away iirc

sandler was fine which for sandler is saying a lot

Yes that is how I break it down to an extent

I also thought of Gilbert Gottfried!

Yes, there's no accounting for who some ppl screw.

Refresh my memory, do we know Bogosian is Sandler's brother-in-law before the seder scene?

I don't think so

don’t think so

i feel like there's a throwaway line that implies some kind of family connection prior to that but nothing specific

no, and it’s such a great reveal

weird sex stuff?

Well. She’s pretty delighted to have him be jacking off in the cab, and more delighted he was in the closet all along

you're describing a vanilla tuesday there though

i feel like there's a throwaway line that implies some kind of family connection prior to that but nothing specific

― na (NA), Tuesday, February 4, 2020 4:44 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he does seem to know an awful lot about his family and kids in that scene in the car (that amazing detail where arno mentions that howie's sending his kids to the notoriously ritzy camp timberlake)

i assumed she was in it for the apartment and then the money/excitement but maybe that makes me an asshole

mainly because everyone else in the movie is scamming

I think she loves him in the authentic way that only truly fucked up people can love each other. it felt very real to me

yeah, i thought their relationship was weirdly sweet.

I think the sexting moment is the first tell. As said upthread, when they're sexting, she doesn't know he's there, yet she still starts pleasuring herself to the convo.

Also when she pulled the temporary prank to list his apt on Craigslist, but he goes home to find out she's actually gone as requested and left a sweet note, it showed she still had some feelings and compassion for him.

She didn’t list his apartment she sent him a link to a place she could move into

But I thought the same lol

i thought she was texting the craigslist ad as a way to say "here's where i'm going"

i don't think that was his apartment she was listing? It was going for like 1600 or something in the LES and that's not what was up with his goumada drop spot at all.

When he's hiding in the closet I just assumed her outfit was for someone else and that's why the scene was unfolding as it was - the fact it was all genuinely for him was shocking and sweet and surprising

if she was listing where she was going, why did he get so angry and distracted at dinner? he starts getting worked up and frantically texting her asking if she was fucking with him, then gets mega insistent on checking to see if she's gone on the way home. Which, yes, he did tell her to be out and send a picture confirming it, so he would have showed up to check on that regardless, and it's true dude doesn't give much of a shit about other people, but I felt like he was probably more likely to wait until he got them home so his kids wouldn't find out if he hadn't been spooked by her text.

I interpreted to be her posing a prank and listing his apartment for far less than it was worth on Craigslist so that people would keep coming by and fucking with him asking about the place. Apparently other people thought this too, but maybe we're wrong! (http://themoviespoiler.com/movies/uncut-gems/)

He just seemed mega convinced that she was up to no good and seems surprised when he hears loud music but finds nobody inside.

I guess the thugs must've been working on contingency, only getting paid when howard does

xp my revised read on the whole sequence was he's mad because it seems like she's actually leaving, which of course he didn't actually want her to do?

the 'script' i found online just says it's just a one bedroom, not that it's his, so *shrug*.

xpost possibly

i think she's saying "here's where I'm going when you decide you want to see me; I'll be okay" and he reads it as "buy me this place instead" or just otherwise misconstrues it in asshole fashion

Lol the dialogue was coming fast so obviously I missed an important word of two but I thought “Timberlake” meant tickets to see Justin.

154-minute cut hitting theaters shortly

Does this film need a longer cut? Any indication about what is added?

an extra 30 mins of colonoscopy footage, apparently

Does this film need a longer cut? Any indication about what is added?

yes; not yet

We're going to see flashbacks of a young Howard in elementary school and the plot twist is that he's actually his character in Billy Madison

Does this film need a longer cut? Any indication about what is added?

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, 5 February 2020 14:45 (forty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

caught as far as him letting himself in to his gfs apartment after winning big on the game last night before switching off totally disinterested

if it needs a longer cut they could do with putting something compelling in up to this point i spose

i think the first julia/howard scene is also key to their dynamic--she's sleeping late and he's annoyed but she convinces him to get in bed and *cuddle*--there's a little sense of sweetness and vulnerability in how he is around her vs. the rest of the time when he has to be always on and operating.

yes

Absolutely.

idg the "Julia's feelings for Howie are ambiguous" idea mentioned a couple time itt. They're totally unambiguous!

I've said it a couple times and I stand by it. I think it was purposefully framed this way. That's why those scenes where she shows a sweet or playful side are so surprising. Perhaps a second screening would change my mind.

i don't need a longer cut.

First circumcision was just fine

I heard they have an extra 25 mins of colonoscopy that better sets things up

the twofer!

uncut gems, uncut

oh jeez sorry bg xxxxxp

Any indication about what is added?

It's a Q&A / prank show comedy short that will play after the film, if the trailer featuring the Safdies, Sandler, Megan Amram and Jason Bateman at Mel's Diner is any indication. (Though I've only seen announcements of a Q&A, not an extended cut, so maybe that's something different.)

lol no worries xp

I love that Wayne diamond was very horny for Julia fox in uncut gems but also is very horny for Julia Fox in real life pic.twitter.com/AkJZtMf6uH

— 🥺😈 (@olivia_vault) February 5, 2020

lol senegal?

wayne diamond is working on a different level in many respects

The opening to this instantly made me think of the opening of The Exorcist and it's tempting to read what follows as a straight-up tale of a curse coming to haunt the greedy owner of an immorally expropriated artifact

https://marissachanningbates.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/capture-10.png

I totally thought of The Exorcist, too! Certainly Howard is ... possessed.

funnily enough watching the start of this again yesterday i thought that the font which establishes the location was very similar if not identical to the font on the poster for the exorcist

you're right - they are v similar! though the exorcist caption provides less information to help orient us about which teams are in the playoffs

https://i.imgur.com/4wMsaWl.png

https://i.imgur.com/lMkz5Ho.png

that lack of playoff specificity is one of the exorcist's great failings, i've always said it

I thought the titles were more reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark, though can see Exorcist connection too.

im in a safdie meme facebook group and one of arno’s goons joined it and he keeps flexing on it and posting gems memes and it owns lmao pic.twitter.com/yJObPJWM2r

— robert franco (@responsiblerob) February 6, 2020

that guy has such an incredible face, even in a movie full of faces that make you go ‘holy shit check out THIS guy’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihalG3Rw_QA

posted that mostly for "homeless rabbis" line

Man this was relentless.
It really reminded me of that novel by Kazuo Ishiguro that's written so specifically like a dream, with the main dude kind of sleepwalking from one important task to another but never quite completing each one and seemingly getting tangled in all the duties, risks, seemingly forgetting the point of each one or leaving some valuable thing somewhere vulnerable, although this film takes it to fever pitch level and Sandler kind of has it in hand for enough of it you're not quite sure if he'll pull it all off or end up chucked out of a window.

"homeless rabbis" line was great.

The Uncut Gems title font is Albertus, which I think of as the Ginsberg's Howl / National Review font.

my first thought was that its pretty close to the classic John Carpenter font -
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/John_Carpenter%27s_The_Thing_%28closing_credits_Logo%29.png
/ https://assets.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/60/59205/full-1920x816/59f8d023/Big_Trouble_in_Little_China-Directed_by_John_Carpenter.jpeg?resolution=0

Jewish excellence!!!! https://t.co/fk6OehAaZm

— Naomi Fry (@frynaomifry) February 18, 2020

would watch

:D

Will watch.

Lol @ “Flipanthrophy”, perfect

Yes

Anyone seen Go Get some rosemary?

oh fuck that's great news

the Safdie brothers aren't directing the pilot? what the

Howard this weekend:

running around buying black-market way -overpriced disinfectant wipes & TP & boasting about his collection. He’d spend the first 10 days on L.I. being the family man they forgot he could be till he’d run mad, hop in His car & catch covid from a stranger trying to track down Julia https://t.co/jRAiruwmFM

— SAFDIE (@JOSH_BENNY) March 15, 2020

ME: I want a three-way parlay on coronavirus. Travel suspended from Europe, NBA season suspended, Tom Hanks has it. You take lightning bets? I want a lightning bet on the stock market dive -- thousand bucks a point

YOU: That's the dumbest fuckin' bet I ever heard of

ME: pic.twitter.com/T36UBHbTwz

— limited breadsticks (@limitlessjest) March 12, 2020

I'm going to put this here, too:

Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Directed by George Romero pic.twitter.com/91cvhlLLga

— SAFDIE (@JOSH_BENNY) March 17, 2020

Your chance to own the bejewelled Furby.

https://a24auctions.com/auctions/gems-uncut-gems

kinda want that MJ pendant

just bid on it. i own't win but the idea of even having a chance is killing me lol

lol just gave up on the bidding war. money's going to charity so at least that amount has increased!

it was me, I outbid you! any day now the MJ pendant will be MINE!

also the charity doesn't exist, it's a sham set up by ME! NYEH HEH HEH HWEE!

I only just realised Howard's surname is Ratner. Possibly a reference to the infamous jeweller who buried his own company by declaring his products to be shit...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ratner

People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?", I say, "because it's total crap."[6]

He compounded this by going on to remark that one of the sets of earrings was "cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn't last as long."

or the nyc real-estate dude who bought the Nets - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Ratner

and took a similar attitude towards them tbh

haha when I started watching the film I thought it was going to be about Gerald Ratner for a moment there.
The 'Ratner effect' is in general parlance here iirc

finally saw this today

I really liked it. But god SO fucking stressful!
Mr Veg was more underwhelmed, he just thought Howie was a dope & didnt care much what happened to him, lol.

I think I just like movies about hubris & ppl making bad decisions? all the stress of robbing peter to pay paul alone while making insane bets and having a mistress and a family and maybe colon cancer. like you could kinda tell within the first 30 minutes that he was gonna end up dead some way or another.

but the verité of being right there in his life was pretty genius. and so many great characters, just wall to wall like a great gritty 70’s crime movie.

the intensity felt kinda Dog Day Afternoon for me? not the story but that feeling of real-life actual panic. and as the audience you just get airdropped into that diamond showroom like aghfuuuuck jesus get me out of here

I think I just like movies about hubris & ppl making bad decisions?

have you watched the safdie's Good Times yet because ohhhhhhh man

hahah otm

I really liked Good Time

I mentioned in another thread that I wasn’t crazy about the obsession with men's jewelry, the NBA, and gambling in Uncut Gems. The milieu overwhelmed the plot for me

In retrospect it was memorable though, and Adam Sandler was good

I think I just like movies about hubris & ppl making bad decisions?

otm

I mentioned in another thread that I wasn’t crazy about the obsession with men's jewelry, the NBA, and gambling in Uncut Gems. The milieu overwhelmed the plot for me

― Dan S, Saturday, May 30, 2020 10:02 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think this is a fair criticism. good time has a little bit more to say as far as rob pat's character justifying doing whatever he wants as an act of caring for his brother.

I loved Good Time!!

as much as uncut gems caters brilliantly to some of my interests, i do think good time is a slightly better movie

agreed cad

i think it’s easier to root for RPattz’s character, for sure. plus his brother adds some human stakes

whereas Howie’s whole stort hinges on a lot of material stakes that could easily leave a lot of ppl cold

*story

the end of gems, when you are locked in howie's world and watching the bet play out, is superlative filmmaking and an amazing payoff for the stress of the movie.

gems has a quality of getting lost in its own plot a little, who owes what to who and why, whereas ime good time flows effortlessly from one point to the next

yeah totally agree with that

i really liked how Uncut Gems was so immersive

I significantly prefer uncut gems if only because it's much funnier

it is but good time has the indelibly funny moment of

SPOILER

breaking the wrong guy out of the hospital

first time seeing it I didn't think Uncut Gems was very funny

now I wanna watch good time again

i keep thinking the nba should replay the celtics playoff game from the climactic seen on nba tv and make a big deal event of it, like pop ups tracking howard's bets and such, hey nba marketing people this was my idea plz be in touch with my representatives

lol 2nded

first time seeing it I didn't think Uncut Gems was very funny

― Dan S, Saturday, May 30, 2020 11:29 PM bookmarkflaglink

Sandler getting the results of his test and asking why Jewish people get colon cancer, "we're supposed to be the chosen people", while Lakeith Stanfield is in the process of wreaking havoc in his office....

I love the honest contradictory opinions I still keep hearing from people who didn't necessarily know what they were in for. Stuff like "I get why it's a great movie, but I hated it" or "the acting was amazing, but I never want to see it again," stuff like that.

maybe if Sandler did Billy Madison voice more

Uncut Gems is on Netflix but I’d much rather spend 2 hours watching @timheidecker do his Adam Sandler impression pic.twitter.com/LROaD3jdi1

— 🤘💀 ♡ (@tweetcamey) May 25, 2020

maybe if Sandler did Billy Madison voice more

I wasn't expecting him to do "comedy voices," but I was expecting him to actually sound like a New York diamond district Jew, which to my ear he didn't. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this movie, but the "darkest Africa" opener was pretty ugh, and then we're literally up Sandler's ass? I only lasted about 20 minutes in all. I bailed during Kevin Garnett's first visit to the showroom.

I almost get a Gaspar Noe vibe from it, between there always being 2-3 people talking at once and the BGM cranked up its like the movie is trying to give you a migraine. My wife’s reaction: “that wasn’t a movie, it was 2 hours of people screaming at each other”

I want to say that was my wife's verbatim reaction, though I think she recognized it as a movie. It made her physically ill, a la "Dancer in the Dark."

noe comparison otm

tap out moment for her was the scene in the shop an hour in where you've got KG's people, Arno's people, plus side plots with the doctor & Julia all at the same time, she was like "Jesus Christ does this movie have any quiet scenes at all?"

one issue I had with this was the large bet at the Sun, I am pretty sure a young woman can't just waltz into a sportsbook and place a 6-figure bet that pays a million bucks, they would automatically flag that as sharp money coming from someone they'd banned previously. Harlabob used to talk about this a lot, back when his action was either banned or severely limited at nearly every book in Vegas.

There’s no sports book at the Sun either, as I think was discussed upthread. A concession to the plot.

frogbs remember when you won the board over by explaining why deathdr0ne was an insanely bad poker player

hah I haven't thought about that guy in years. kinda wonder what he's been up to, seems like he's gone completely dark since that SA thread 'outed' him

noe comparison wildly offtm

I guess both are loud/energetic but that's literally all they have in common imo

i was thinking more of the creeping physical dread

and the blinkered, obsessed protagonists too i guess

happy to talk more about dog day afternoon too, though, which i prefer to any of noe's movies

The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie is definitely a mood these Safdie's are going for imo

hah I haven't thought about that guy in years. kinda wonder what he's been up to, seems like he's gone completely dark since that SA thread 'outed' him

https://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/21349396/

it looks like he developed (already had?) some fairly serious mental issues. i remember playing with him a half-dozen times or so at foxwoods way back when (speaking of CT casinos), and my abiding memory of him is that he smelled terrible even by poker player standards

The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie is definitely a mood these Safdie's are going for imo

yes! cassavetes still the high water mark of woozy eldritch venality

just saw Heaven Knows What over the weekend. is there a thread for it? it was abysmal in the extreme. ilya is a great villain. my girlfriend and i hated him from the first shot of his stupid face. safdie bros seem to specialize in abjection. i would recommend watching if you want to see a pretty good depiction of junkie desperation and can stomach something very depressing. safdies wring very believable performances from everyone in their movies--awesome directors imo.

also, i remember reading kobe turned the part in Uncut down because he also wanted to direct?! lololol

he would have been great for the part - more threatening than garnett who just can't help being adorable imo

my comparison to Noe was more about how they deliberately try to make the viewer feel uneasy through means other than dialogue, set design, and lighting. leading the movie off with an hour straight of people talking over each other, for example

https://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/21349396/
it looks like he developed (already had?) some fairly serious mental issues. i remember playing with him a half-dozen times or so at foxwoods way back when (speaking of CT casinos), and my abiding memory of him is that he smelled terrible even by poker player standards

I figured he had to have either killed himself or landed in jail, this was a dude who absolutely would not stop posting. like even after getting hacked and having all his personal shit leaked he was back the next day with "journal 6/7/13: jacked off into a shoe 4 times today". not surprised to find out he had severe mental problems.

I feel like some of the characters in Safdie films would be vulnerable to poster's disease if they ever used social media

what’s the best movie about posting

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NHQVSXHRL._AC_SY400_.jpg

a lil movie called the social network i mean hes literally sittig on his computer hitting refresh on fb at the end xp

yeah but that's kinda on the nose if you ask me

All the President's Men

enhance

Convoy

breaker breaker, 19 19 a copy, rubber sock here

god there is so much Vangelis in this soundtrack, I love it

oooh she's an uncut gem
she's untouched by man

I saw this last week and didn't like the first third or so, especially the jewish stereotypes with the fake teeth. My wife almost left early on.

From the point of the seder revealing that Arno was Howard's brother-in-law, I stopped caring about the characters and just enjoyed the ride. The second half especially has some very funny moments, like when Julia gets the "Howie" tattoo and Howard whines pathetically, "ah, now you can't be buried with me." Loved the Billy Joel musical cue, such an NYC thing.

The posts upthread otm about Howard having no clue he was about to be killed and dying at his happiest moment.

It would have been amazing if the song crüt just referenced played over the end credits.

started watching this but I was very hungover and it was straight claustrophobic close up shots and people shouting for the first 15 minutes so I figured I'd come back to it

lol this is a terrible hangover movie

DL, we’ve got to make sure we caution you about what kind of space you need to be in to consume media! I feel like we’ve failed you a few times now

yeah i cant imagine anything worse for a hangover short of a blacksmith convention lol

trump rally

I liked this overall. Better than Good Time. Some serious flaws. By 20-30 minutes before the end I had just completely given up on Howard as a character so I kind of stopped caring what happened. It just stopped being fun or interesting watching a very stupid and simple man remain lost in his delusions. Also a flaw in Adam Sandler's performance I think, he ran out of tricks.

I didn't mind the "jewish stereotypes," tbh, the world and the people felt real and human enough to me. I mean, those kinds of lowlifes exist in this world, and some of them are Jewish.

I think it helped to watch this on fairly low volume on my laptop -- I couldn't have handled it in a theater.

OTOH I guess it works in that way as a portrait of a compulsive gambler. Because you know it doesn’t even matter if someone like that wins their million dolllar bet, they’ll find some way to squander it and get into trouble again.

yeah I thought the way it portrayed his addiction was pretty effective

I liked this overall. Better than Good Time. Some serious flaws. By 20-30 minutes before the end I had just completely given up on Howard as a character so I kind of stopped caring what happened. It just stopped being fun or interesting watching a very stupid and simple man remain lost in his delusions.

Lol, you and me are opposites. When I stopped caring about the character is when I started enjoying the movie.

A lot of really compelling performances though, including Sandler even though I thought he ran out of steam before the end. Lakeith Stanfield seems like the most underrated/unsung standout in the film, Idina Menzel almost too real as the fed up wife

KG was great as a just very slightly alternate universe version of himself

I didn't even realize that was Judd Hirsch until I just googled btw, another great one

I thought KG was passable for most of the film but that scene just before howard places the big bet where they really gave him a shot to spread his wings was kind of a miss for me

julia fox was the revelation of the movie. the safdies have brought out pretty killer performances by first time actresses a couple of times now

I watched GOOD TIME a couple of months ago and after re-watching this one last week I do think this is the superior film, but both are great. pattinson probably with the best performance in all their work tho

still can't believe the main goon was a first time actor

At a certain level of abstraction this was them making Good Time again but better.

yup

Much better than Good Time because it's a more fully realized film. I rewatched it today, and definitely holds up.

one of my best friends watched it and kept texting me during it, stuff like "he's already crazy and we're only 40% into the movie!"

The manic pace of the first act is really something, it actually kind of slows down slightly after that.

The moment when he first shows the gem to KG really moved me this time.

I could happily watch this a couple times a year for....a while

yeah same

It def occurs to me that I want to watch this again, less so with Good Time

Kind of hard to say, given that I've never seen the 90s remake of Night in the City (but I am aware of its reputation), this movie feels like the proper way to update that film. I almost didn't watch this--haven't seen their previous film (but will now), and the Sandler-in-a-real-movie hook doesn't interest me--so I'm surprised and delighted at how much I enjoyed this.

That first sentence is missing a conjunction somewhere, but hopefully you know what I mean.

definitely see GOOD TIME

RIP

RIP MARSHALL GREENBERG you were loved. pic.twitter.com/I1uQ1YOxMY

— Elara (@ElaraPictures) February 17, 2021

Aw :(

Greatest actor of all time

Taking vigs from beyond

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/benny-safdie-solo-the-curse-smashing-machine-1235859184/

is this the thread for discussing THE CURSE!?

bc it's really good and i am on ep 4 after starting this afternoon (it's my day off, fuiud)