Mining Tension
**Spoilers, of course**
Current talk of the town Uncut Gems has one of the great opening sequences of last decade. In a mining camp, a group of Ethiopian Jewish miners strikes gold — well, rare black opal. Right now, a 95x36mm one of these prized gemstones is going for $3,000 on Etsy. An apparent price drop. Sheesh.
As for the black opal our miners find, there’s barely enough time to sit with the discovery, or what it means, before we’re transported into the heart of the gem. 70s synth sounds pace a psychedelic odyssey. And on the other side, a GI doc cruises through Howard Ratner’s (Adam Sandler) innards in the midst of a colonoscopy. I haven’t seen a more imaginative introduction to a hero or his story in quite some time.
But it’s not just the distinctive visual storytelling and editing (especially sound editing) that stands out in the Safdie brothers’ latest feature. It’s the tension. And I’m not just talking run of the mill tension. In every scene, the anxiety meter is turned up to the max. Tension is mined for everything its worth. Josh and Benny Safdie have made a simple buzzer dramatic — and possibly even traumatizing — in the same way that Peele shook everyone with stirring tea.
A few miles due north of Wall Street, Ratner plays a jeweler in New York City’s Diamond District. It’s hard to say he’s a complete failure. Ratner has the upper middle class totems of a Manhattan apartment, where his mistress Julia (newcomer Julia Fox) crashes, and a house in the burbs with his soon to be ex-wife Dinah Ratner (Idina Menzel) and kids. On the other hand, he seems to owe everyone money, conducting business layaway style; he’ll pawn off an heirloom to pay off some guys on Tuesday, even if it means having to manifest even more cash to pay back his lifeline by Thursday.
As a newcomer to the Safdie’s work, it took a little while to get adjusted to their early scenes. After his colonoscopy, Ratner returns to work at his jewelry store, a cacophonous tightly packed outfit where everyone seems to be talking and demanding something of him. This quickly and smartly establishes Ratner as a leader and an authority. He juggles a lot and the audience is required to walk this tightrope as well, dealing with the many mechanics involved in the day in the life of a jeweler who doesn’t exactly operate above board. It feels real and raw, and somehow not gimmicky, and I was slowly seduced into starting to root for this unlikely hero.
One day, that prized black opal from Ethiopia shows up at Ratner’s shop and just in the nick of time. Demany (Lakeith Stanfield), who has ties to the hoops and hip hop world, intros NBA all-timer Kevin Garnett who’s come to see Ratner’s stuff. Later, rapper The Weeknd, born of Ethiopian parents, also makes a cameo. Uncut Gems, by the way, takes place in the early 2010s. KG is in the midst of a playoff series against the Elton Brand era Philadelphia 76ers, and is looking for a new good luck charm.
Ratner isn’t really an inquisitive man, but he lights up as he talks about the history of the gem and how he played the long game to nab it. Maybe it’s even worth millions. All he knows is that it will change his fate. KG is touched by it too and convinces Ratner to loan it to him for a game. In exchange, Ratner borrows KG’s hallowed Boston Celtics ‘08 championship ring. Soon, a past his prime player’s resurgent game (credit the gem) sparks another Ratner scheme. Go all in on Kevin Garnett in the world of sports betting.
I’ve noted how it’s been a while since I’ve seen a hoops movie or television treatment that shows extended scenes of actual basketball. Usually the depiction doesn’t focus on the actual game played on the beautiful parquet. Well the genre-bending Uncut Gems finally gives us hoops fans something to cheer about. Ratner (and Brooklyn native and Knicks fan Sandler) somehow becomes a Celtics fan for a week or so, desperately watching games at his apartment, in a bar, on his phone when he should be reading to his kid in bed, and ultimately, even when looking down the barrel of a gun.
Uncut Gems really nails the anxiety involved in watching sports, and the joy. But while this investment can come from being a noble fan rooting for their home team, there are so many other ways to have skin in the game. Ratner’s final bet to end all bets, an almost farcical affair where more than two dozen things need to go right for his big payday, speaks to the current state of the NBA and its obsession with number-crunching analytics. The Safdies also somehow make high dramedy out of the 2012 Eastern Semis, where whoever advanced was sure to get trounced by Lebron and Wade’s Miami Heat. And of course, the filmmakers wouldn’t be righteous Knicks fans without a dig at owner James Dolan.
While Ratner juggles bets and avoiding the many goons who come to collect, he also deals with home and family life. Julia is painted kind of thinly at first, but later reveals that she knows a lot more than she lets on. There’s an especially fun scene where Ratner, always the goofball, arrives home early and hides before Julia enters. They begin phone sex, when all of a sudden Ratner jumps out from hiding and surprises her.
Outside of the city, Ratner tries to rekindle things with Dinah, who has her heart set on a divorce. He keeps delaying it, not above using Passover seder as an excuse for why they should present a united front for longer. And when Ratner gives his hail mary speech, telling Dinah that he’s a changed man, the reaction is surprising. Laughter. She doesn’t even undress him in a didactic or expositional way for the audience’s benefit. No attempt to redeem. Just laughter.
But while Uncut Gems wisely avoids being heavy-handed with Ratner’s internal struggle at some points, in others, it doesn’t feel like it digs deep enough. When Ratner is at his lowest, fresh off his worst whooping to date, he finally breaks down in front of Julia. To be sure, this vulnerability is significant and shows change. But to me, the breakdown felt more ostentatious and performative, and just as non self-reflective as he was at every other point in the film. At this point, I think I expected a more quiet and honest insight from him about exactly what he wants and why he wants it.
Similarly, there were times when my anxiety levels felt so high that I felt more manipulated than thrilled or satisfied. While the drama that came from Ratner’s own doing was usually believable and compelling, the drama that came from, say that protracted buzzer scene, just felt like our strings were being pulled. And more to the point, it seemed like a departure from exploring the theme of someone being their own worst enemy. Storytelling is about contrast and emphasis, but if the dial is always turned up, some viewers might just shut down, having felt bludgeoned.
***1/2/*****