Uncut Gems (2019), Paying Debt With More Debts

When you hear the name Adam Sandler, you might immediately imagine an actor who often appears in comedy films with his ridiculous performance. For decades in the film industry, Sandler has mastered the world of comedy and managed to make so many viewers laugh. However, this time he offers another side of himself in the crime gambling genre film, Uncut Gems (2019).

Since the beginning of the film, the screen and speakers are immediately filled with various colors and voices of many people’s dialogue. The Safdie brothers are known for their inventive techniques.

This film by Josh and Benny Safdie provide a very grueling cinematographic direction. As there is almost no scene where the audience can catch their breath.

The camera will always follow the character’s movements from running, beating, calling, pawning goods, to important meetings, and many other things.

However, it actually managed to tense up from start to finish due to the outstanding performances of its players, especially Adam Sandler.

Plot

The film tells the story of a very charismatic jewelery seller, played by Adam Sandler with a typical American Jewish accent in New York City. This character named Howard Ratner has a side “business” other than selling jewelry.

He is obsessed with betting on basketball games, which makes him dig a hole that covers the hole by pawning any valuable jewelry he finds. However, his attempts to win this many times did not go as smoothly as he expected.

In this film, the character Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a jewelery shop owner who is addicted to gambling and tries to escape his debt by selling rare black opals from Ethiopia to Boston Celtics player Kevin Garnett (played by himself).

Ratner’s extremely petty character in executing his reckless plan will make the audience bite his fingers. We all know he’s done; in the end, all his actions are nothing more than dig a hole, cover the hole.

Conclusion

In this film, Adam Sandler shines unusually. If in a comedy he usually makes mistakes and the audience laughs, in Uncut Gems he will make mistakes and the audience will feel tired. As if he wanted to tell his character to stop being stupid and start thinking logically and not being greedy.

Adam Sandler shows his selfish side as a gambling enthusiast in downtown New York.

During that time, when the audience feels depressed about how stupid the character is, Adam Sandler continues to portray him with the confidence that he made the right choice. And that he is the smartest human being in the world.

In the end, the greed belonging to those in the capitalist world will only bring harm. Not only for yourself, but also for the people around you.

Uncut Gems can be watched on Netflix.

Read more: The 25 Best Gambling Movies of All Time