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Feb 07, 2022 Web Exclusive By Ed McMenamin

Jewelry dealer and inveterate gambler Howie Ratner gets high even when he loses. A big loss, after all, means he’ll need an even bigger win. Howie’s addicted to the stress of insurmountable stakes, and he is a maniac for the adrenaline rush.

Each parlay leads to the next—he pawns tomorrow’s potential jewelry sales for cash to place bets that he would, ostensibly, use to settle debts. But when the bets are right, the bookies still never see their money. He already has his eyes on the next big score. Howie, played by Adam Sandler in a career-best role, likes to tell himself it’s all about winning. But he simply never accepts a win. The guy has a talent for snatching defeat from the claws of victory.

Like all good salesmen, Howie is a fantastic storyteller when he’s not telling stories to himself. The skill shines early in the film when his business partner (Lakeith Stanfield) brings potential client Kevin Garnett (playing himself) into Howie’s jewelry store. The same day, Howie expects delivery of a massive black opal smuggled out of Africa, and he entrances Garnett with a story about the beauty of the stone, the people who mined it, and his own prowess of acquisition. Garnett immediately wants what he can’t have – Howie has the stone listed for auction – but the two agree that the NBA star can borrow the gem for good luck during his next game while Howie holds his championship ring as collateral. Howie, being Howie, immediately pawns the ring and takes the cash to place a bet. The intention, as far as Howie has convinced himself, is to use the winnings to pay back his brother-in-law who has hired two violent goons to collect an overdue loan.

The plan begins to unravel when the two henchmen interfere with Howie’s bets and Garnett goes AWOL with the opal. As Howie’s life begins to spin out of control, the wagers he places on sports are winners, ironically, but the bets he makes on himself and his private life bring trouble. Sports gambling is the ultimate distraction from his problems—an unhappy wife (Idina Menzel), a troublesome mistress (Julia Fox in her film debut), and a business with just enough money for garish marble, but not enough for a functioning door buzzer.

Writing and directing brothers Josh and Benny Safdie—with longtime collaborator and production designer Sam Lisenco—immerse the audience in the Manhattan diamond district’s chaotic sleaze. The brothers, who grew up observing the 47th street jewelry shops where their father worked as a runner, bring personal authenticity to the material. They populate the frame with conmen, street characters, and skeptical pawnshop owners. Each carries a grievance against Howie, who seems to collect debts like flypaper collects bugs.

Howie’s home life is depicted with a similar level of detail. His city apartment—away from the family home in Long Island—is a post-modern horror show of suede, neon and polished metal. It projects every sad promise of wealth and opulence sold by Oliver Stone’s Wallstreet and the 1980s “greed is good’’ ethos that formed Howie’s aspirations as a young man.

The Safdies’ work is often compared to Martin Scorsese’s gritty New York City fables, which is more or less accurate in spirit if not in style. The camera in Uncut Gems is frenetic and tight, unlike Scorsese’s famous long tracking shots. But Uncut Gems does recall the iconic director’s early, scrappy work, and its energy plays like the most nerve-wracking sequence from Goodfellas—Henry Hill’s very bad Sunday May 11, 1980—extended for an entire feature-length run time.

If paranoia was the defining characteristic of 1970s American cinema, anxiety is the modern condition and Uncut Gems is perhaps the best expression of that 21st Century mood. Howie’s taste for polished brass and pink marble—inspired directly by the Trump Tower lobby—form a jarring contrast to his crumbling psyche and disastrous finances. He’s a schemer and an optimist at heart who believes in the big American payday. But he’s playing a rigged game where the house always wins, and everyone knows it but him.

Uncut Gems is one of the first titles Criterion has released on Ultra HD 4k Blu-ray, following Citizen Kane and five other launch titles. The film looks incredible in 4k, and the two-disc set includes a bounty of features including enlightening interviews with production designer Sam Lisenco, cinematographer Darius Khondji, audio commentaries, short films from the Safdies, an essay by film critic J. Hoberman and, for the 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions, a 2020 discussion of the film by the editorial staff of Jewish Currents magazine.

(www.criterion.com/films/31917-uncut-gems)

Follow Ed McMenamin on twitter at @EdMcMenamin