Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #192: Uncut Gems (2019).

In 2012, Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) is a jeweller and major gambling addict in New York City. He's struggling to repay the $100 000 he owes to loan shark Arno (Eric Bogosian). At home he's torn between his estranged wife Dinah (Idina Menzel), with whom he has a young son (alongside two older children) and his girlfriend Julia (Julia Fox). One day Howard's associate Demany (Lakeith Stanfield) demands they bring NBA superstar Kevin Garnett (playing himself) in and once they do, they hatch a plan to try to swindle Garnett out of his lucrative 2008 championship ring with a very rare Ethiopian diamond; Howard reluctantly goes ahead with this. When it naturally goes pear-shaped and Howard and Demany have to travel to Chicago and then back, Arno and his are angrily waiting, their trap set for them.

This Netflix crime thriller by brothers Benny and Josh Safdie has received widely effusive praise, especially for Sandler's performance, but I have to say it never quite did more than intrigue me. The premise is certainly unorthodox for a crime flick - the inner workings of the jewel trade and its social repercussions - and the narrative's trajectory is lucidly and patiently plotted, but I felt the aesthetic approach was quite misjudged. The lighting and framing is simply much too polished for a study of the underworld and corrupt political industries, and the soundtrack could've used a few more pop songs (although look out for the Weeknd in a cameo).

I also didn't quite understand the very high praise for Sandler's work, which won him the National Board of Review and Independent Spirit Awards for Best Actor. He is good, but far from great for me; in the more emotional and intimate scenes I found him slightly too subtle, although the rest of the time his usual awkward comedic mannerisms are well-applied for drama here. I personally found Stanfield more impressive as the committed but increasingly vulnerable and suspicious right-hand man Demany.

For me, Uncut Gems is an adequate and inventive crime drama but one that does as many things wrong as right. 7/10.