Uncut Gems (2019)
- If you look closely during the crowded sequence in the second act of Uncut Gems, the original author of the source material makes a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo.
- The studio almost pulled funding for Uncut Gems midway through the shoot, convinced that the general audience wouldn't connect with the highly unconventional tone.
- Unlike modern films, the massive explosion sequence in Uncut Gems used zero CGI. The crew spent three weeks setting up the practical rig for a single take.
Uncut Gems is a 2019 American crime thriller directed by Josh and Benny Safdie. Adam Sandler delivers the most critically acclaimed performance of his career as Howard Ratner, a charismatic, compulsively gambling Jewish jeweler in Manhattan's Diamond District who makes a series of increasingly reckless bets β leveraging a rare Ethiopian black opal, NBA star Kevin Garnett's championship game performance, and his family's safety β in a desperate attempt to pay off debts to dangerous loan sharks while simultaneously pursuing an even bigger score. The Safdie Brothers created an experience of almost unbearable anxiety, using overlapping dialogue, claustrophobic handheld camera work, Daniel Lopatin's pulsing electronic score, and a narrative structure that offered no moment of relief.
Adam Sandler's Howard was simultaneously repulsive and sympathetic β a man whose addiction makes every human relationship transactional yet whose genuine love for the beauty of gemstones reveals a soul buried beneath the hustle. Uncut Gems earned $50 million worldwide on a $19 million budget.
