The new Safdie Brothers film, Uncut Gems had a wide release in theaters on Christmas Day. It’s a solid movie that is divisive between audiences and critics, but both are correct.
Most criticisms are nitpicks, like the amount of cursing, but it works for the tone of the movie. Usually, this amount of cursing feels gimmicky, which tends to happen when a movie uses an insane amount of cursing in a single scene. But in this case it isn’t a problem. Most of the cursing was emphasized to make scenes feel more tense, and it worked to a small but impactful degree because most of the movie is built around tension. There’s a growing situation that keeps on ramping up, but it never slows down enough to lose the tension.
One piece of criticism I can get behind is that the entire script consists of people yelling over each other, and that tricks everyone to think that the performances were excellent. It has the same problem as Marriage Story, a film released earlier in 2019, where if an actor yells angrily and cries a bit, suddenly the actor’s performance Oscar-worthy.
Don’t get me wrong, the performances in Uncut Gems were good. For the first time in years I was entertained during a movie with Adam Sandler as the lead. He was genuinely funny and had the best possible performance, because he actually had good material to work with. Performances by LaKeith Stanfield and Julia Fox were also more than noteworthy. But then again, almost everyone falls into the same Oscar-baity category and I’m here to tell you… people yelling does not equal an Oscar.
But through the technical work, the film was never boring. The Safdie Brothers’ signature claustrophobic style and cinematography shines through once again. While not as intensely used like their previous film, Good Time, it was noticeable enough to build the intensity of the movie. This coupled with the stellar editing and sound design, makes for a movie that keeps you paying attention.
My one major problem is with the ending, which is not as satisfying as it should’ve been. I want to encourage people to watch this movie, if they either like crime dramas or an interesting character study of greed. The ending just felt really rushed, because it came out of seemingly nowhere, and I wish there was one more spike of tension before the resolution.
I genuinely think this movie is one of the better ones that 2019 produced, but I wouldn’t put it on any top ten lists by any means. I would score this movie as a 7.5/10, go watch it.
Most criticisms are nitpicks, like the amount of cursing, but it works for the tone of the movie. Usually, this amount of cursing feels gimmicky, which tends to happen when a movie uses an insane amount of cursing in a single scene. But in this case it isn’t a problem. Most of the cursing was emphasized to make scenes feel more tense, and it worked to a small but impactful degree because most of the movie is built around tension. There’s a growing situation that keeps on ramping up, but it never slows down enough to lose the tension.
One piece of criticism I can get behind is that the entire script consists of people yelling over each other, and that tricks everyone to think that the performances were excellent. It has the same problem as Marriage Story, a film released earlier in 2019, where if an actor yells angrily and cries a bit, suddenly the actor’s performance Oscar-worthy.
Don’t get me wrong, the performances in Uncut Gems were good. For the first time in years I was entertained during a movie with Adam Sandler as the lead. He was genuinely funny and had the best possible performance, because he actually had good material to work with. Performances by LaKeith Stanfield and Julia Fox were also more than noteworthy. But then again, almost everyone falls into the same Oscar-baity category and I’m here to tell you… people yelling does not equal an Oscar.
But through the technical work, the film was never boring. The Safdie Brothers’ signature claustrophobic style and cinematography shines through once again. While not as intensely used like their previous film, Good Time, it was noticeable enough to build the intensity of the movie. This coupled with the stellar editing and sound design, makes for a movie that keeps you paying attention.
My one major problem is with the ending, which is not as satisfying as it should’ve been. I want to encourage people to watch this movie, if they either like crime dramas or an interesting character study of greed. The ending just felt really rushed, because it came out of seemingly nowhere, and I wish there was one more spike of tension before the resolution.
I genuinely think this movie is one of the better ones that 2019 produced, but I wouldn’t put it on any top ten lists by any means. I would score this movie as a 7.5/10, go watch it.