Released on Netflix in 2020 and produced by Scorsese, “Uncut Gems” is a pure gem in which Adam Sandler finds the best role of his career. That of a mythomaniac diamond dealer, magnificent loser, inveterate gambler and weighed down by his debts.
Seen from France, it has always been a little difficult to identify Adam Sandler as a phenomenon of the American Box Office. In French cinemas, his personal best is Pixels, capped at less than 728,000 admissions. On the other hand, across the Atlantic, he has always pranced in the top 10 of the Box Office, appearing among the highest paid actors. In 2019, for example, he collected no less than 57 million dollars in annual revenue. It must be said that with a cachet regularly flirting with 20 million dollars per film, it helps…
A totemic figure of comedy where the best sometimes rubs shoulders with the worst, he is capable of giving the best of himself and being absolutely formidable. We cannot repeat enough how amazing he is in Paul Thomas Andeson’s Punch Drunk Love. In 2019, he was proudly able to pin a great film on his list thanks to an electrifying composition: Uncut Gems.
In this funny and absolutely tragic work written and directed by the Safdie brothers, Josh and Benny, Adam Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a maniacal jewelry merchant plunged into an existential crisis. Mythomaniac and magnificent loser, inveterate sports bettor, weighed down by his gambling debts and surrounded by his tax collectors, this king of chatting risks everything in the hope of staying afloat… and alive.
Like Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee, the Safdie brothers are natives of New York. They grew up partly on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with their mother and stepfather, and partly with their father in Forest Hills, a famous neighborhood in Queens. Uncut Gems has a sometimes very documentary approach to this megalopolis teeming with life, also eyeing the feverish thrillers of the 70’s shot in the Big Apple. Adam Sandler evolves in the midst of sometimes non-professional actors, and immerses the viewer behind the scenes of the Jewish diamond district of New York, located on 47th Street.
netflix
The names of Harvey Keitel, Jonah Hill or Sacha Baron Cohen have been around for a while to take on the role of Howard Ratner. But the character and the movie wouldn’t be what they are without Adam Sandler. A role which was also written by the filmmaker brothers with him in mind. Who ran after him for ten years, without success. It will be necessary to wait until 2017 for the actor to finally accept, after having seen Good Time.
Produced by Martin Scorsese, driven by very rave reviews and released exclusively on Netflix in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Uncut Gems is a pure gem that was unfortunately and very unfairly snubbed by major awards. If you missed this goldsmith’s film, a catch-up session is urgently needed.