![]() ![]() Any time he senses an opportunity he doubles and triples down, even if it means leveraging himself to the hilt to do so. ![]() Through it all, Howard is a manic, unsettling personality who never quits while he’s ahead and never leaves well enough alone. As is The Weeknd, who Howard’s mistress, Julia (played by Julia Fox) apparently has a thing for, much to Howard’s chagrin. Oh yeah, ex-NBA star Kevin Garnett is in this too - playing himself. Among other things, the Safdies have a rare gift for terrifyingly authentic casting.Īt the center of it all is a rare black opal Howard has acquired from Ethiopia that Kevin Garnett comes to believe has magical powers. His various creditors keep showing up unannounced, screwing up other “business opportunities” and occasionally roughing him up, including a pair of Extremely Serious-Looking Mob Dudes, played by Keith Williams Richards and Tommy Kominik. Ratner is trying to run his bling business (he has one necklace featuring a diamond-encrusted Gizmo from Gremlins and another with Michael Jackson posed on a crucifix) while heading two households: one with his wife and kids, the other with his scenester mistress. In Uncut Gems, Sandler pays Howard Ratner, a character apparently inspired by the Safdies’ eccentric Syrian-Jewish father’s time as a jewel runner in New York City’s diamond district. They famously shot Heaven Knows What guerilla-style while one of their lead actors was technically a fugitive. Leave it to the Safdie Brothers - (and their long-time collaborator, Ronald Bronstein, credited as co-writer) to rediscover New York’s dangerous side. It’s a remarkable work of feral filmmaking that makes everything else feel domesticated by comparison. Anchoring the whole thing is, of all people, Adam Sandler. It thrums with the kind of underworld energy and sketchy hustle that most people assumed died in the early Giuliani era. No one needs to rape a nun or smoke crack for Uncut Gems to give you a panic attack. ![]() Uncut Gems, the new film from Benjamin and Joshua Safdie - aka the Safdie Brothers - (who previously gave us a manic Robert Pattinson in Good Times) is a spiritual heir to Bad Lieutenant that somehow manages to give us all the unhinged, life-on-the-edge energy of the original with little of the sensationalism. The film became a punk cinema classic of New York scum and set a standard in which Harvey Keitel demanded to be filmed fully nude in all subsequent roles. In 1992, Abel Ferrara directed Bad Lieutenant, a film in which a crooked NYPD cop played by Harvey Keitel smokes crack, sexually assaults teenagers, and gambles on baseball while trying to solve the rape of a nun. ![]()
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