The sets work almost like a parallel cast of characters, talking over each other, making things feel like Midtown at rush hour, even indoors. These are spaces conceived and executed by production designer Sam Lisenco and set decorator Kendall Anderson as expressions of that thirst for wealth and of its display.
Throughout, Howard operates out of zones of lived-in excess-his armored showroom, his son’s gaudy room, his wife’s pastel kitchen, his in-laws’ den of wealth. Gems, their first film with a healthy budget, focuses on wealth, and displays it. It’s less of a sensory overload and more how the New York in the Safdies’ films functions: a hectic, Bad Lieutenant, 2 A.M.-in-Midtown type of universe. Everyone dresses loudly: Julia, Howard’s employee-slash-mistress, in Christian Lacroix jeans at the nightclub or bright colors for work Howard in Ferragamo and Hugo Boss an assistant in Balmain. When he’s not asleep, everyone-Howard, his creditors, his family, his clients, his colleagues-seems to be talking at once, or over each other.
#Uncut gems movie#
There’s so much going on in Uncut Gems at all times-that’s pretty much what the movie is about-that it’s still loud in the rare instance where Howard accepts some quiet. The camera pans out, almost resigned: He’s done this before. He pulls a blanket out of a dresser, a pillow out of another, and lies down, resigned, on a black chaise. Then there’s the plexi box in the corner, where earrings get cleaned. On his desk there’s a Tom Otterness sculpture, one of the little gold men from the 14th Street A/C/E station, and behind it, on the wall, are signed and framed basketballs and baseballs. It’s in the back of his jewelry showroom on 47th Street, in Manhattan’s Diamond District, and is a mess: black Herman Miller–type office shelving covered in stickers, a big aquarium, sneaker and Apple and big-screen-TV boxes on the floor, a plasma globe, a New York–shaped mirror on the wall. He can’t stay at the Upper East Side apartment he keeps in town (and splits with his mistress), so he goes to crash at his office. Nominated for Independent Spirit Awards for Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Actor (Sandler).There’s a scene in Uncut Gems, the new Josh and Benny Safdie movie, where Howard Ratner, Adam Sandler’s jeweler with a gambling problem who owes money all over town and is in over his head, has a bad night at a nightclub. “The Safdies have crafted a complete experience here: A pointed critique of the ‘American Dream,’ a wry portrait of Jewish assimilation in the 21st century, a cautionary tale about gambling addiction (that also doesn’t shy away from showing how seductive sports betting can be), and an unflinching character study centered around the best performance of Adam Sandler’s career.” ( ScreenCrush)
Nothing goes as planned, of course, and that’s the fun and the terror of this wild ride that pushes viewers to the breaking point of pleasurable anxiety.” ( New York Film Festival)
In a rapid-fire, revelatory performance, Adam Sandler is Howard, a diamond dealer whose life is reaching a crescendo of manic desperation: his relationship with his wife (Idina Menzel) is imploding he owes a hefty chunk of money to angry racketeers and he’s getting in over his head in an ever escalating scheme to make a fortune by selling an Ethiopian opal to Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett (playing himself in a terrific dramatic acting debut). “On the heels of their propulsive Good Time, the Safdie Brothers raise their game with another unhinged New York odyssey coasting on the sweaty highs and lows of a hapless protagonist and the frenetic pace of a city spinning out of control.
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