Second Half
M is for Mike Francesa. – I freaked out when I saw Mike in the trailer for this film. In case you don’t know who he is, he’s a New York sports talk radio legend. A caller once informed him of Stan Lee’s passing and after repeatedly asking who Stan Lee was, he said: “Who cares”, because as a kid he would read the newspaper on the bus to school instead of comics. He is arrogant, loud, often wrong, and hilarious – very similar to Howard. I’m sure, in another world, Howard would call into his show to complain about the Mets. He may not be in the film for long, but I punched the air with glee in the cinema when I saw him.
N is for NBA – This film only works with the National Basketball Arena; no other sport would have the same impact. Eli Manning pawning his SuperBowl rings would not be as enjoyable a watch. This is because the NBA is a star-driven league, fans support players and follow them to whichever team they go to. No basketball player is better for this film than Kevin Garnett (KG), not only because his series against the 76ers works with the film’s timeline but because he has a cocky, slightly unsettling aura about him. He’ll get in your face, and he’ll celebrate in front of you and yet, you also kind of want to be his friend. This plays perfectly with Howie, who wants to seem cool around him, so he lets KG do whatever the fuck he wants because in all honesty if KG wants an opal, who’s going to stop him from taking it. Howard says in the film that in the NBA the last two minutes are the most important, it all comes down to that one tiny moment and it’s the same for Howard. Everything he does during the course of the film comes down to one game which creates an incredibly tense final sequence, even though the game in question took place almost ten years ago.
O is for Oneohtrix Point Never. – Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never, created the beautiful soundtrack for this film, which switches between tender and threatening from song to song. This is a continuation from his work with the Safdies on Good Time, which gave us his incredible collaboration with Iggy Pop, ‘The Pure and the Damned’ which still makes me emotional no matter how many times I’ve listened to it. I hope that the Safdies and Lopatin continue their creative partnership and, if they do, I’m sure he will be considered in the same strata as Trent Reznor and Jonny Greenwood.
P is for Profanity. – Gems has the 7th most F-bombs in cinema history. When used correctly it can enhance a scene, but when used poorly or for laughs, it comes off as cheap and out of place. That didn’t happen once during this as every fuck or cocksucker feels completely natural. This is by far the best depiction of being far too emotionally invested in sports I’ve seen on screen. I have shouted many expletives at my TV, mainly aimed at referees, throughout my life, but if I ever end up lying on the floor of my kid’s bedroom watching a match on my phone in silence, I will take a long, hard look in the mirror. But, that’s Howie, and if the directors’ cut featuring the full basketball game at the end is ever released, it better have even more fucks.
Q is for Quiet. – I said earlier that this film is loud and hectic and anything but quiet, however, this film will quiet the Sandler critics if only for a minute. I love film criticism, from Pauline Kael to Joe Bob Briggs, mostly because I love movies so I want to watch them and read about them and absorb all the information about them that I can. But Sandler has been so derided and criticised throughout his career that it has gotten slightly boring; when everyone makes the same joke at one person’s expense for years it can lose all humour. Not every film he’s made has been great, just look at Spanglish (James L. Brooks, 2004) a film about how much Brooks hates his ex-wife, but are we really going to criticise someone for going on vacation with their family and friends and getting paid for it? Simply because someone plays a dumb character does not make the movie dumb; often, they can be incredibly intelligent films. This may be Sandler’s best performance and best film, but it has the over-the-top and unhinged nature of his other classics like Happy Gilmore (Dennis Dugan, 1996). Maybe his other films just aren’t as cool because they aren’t accompanied by over-priced A24 merch?
R is for Role Players. – I have already spoken at length about how great the cast of this film is, but unfortunately, not everyone can get their own paragraph. Like a great NBA team, this cast is STACKED. There is a deep supporting cast featuring both celebrities such as The Weeknd, who captures the horniness of his 2012 music, and non-actors like the fan favourite Wenig brothers and Ricky Diamond who has a brilliant Instagram and an even better tan. One of my favourite performances in the film comes from Eric Bogosian, the star of Talk Radio (Oliver Stone, 1988) playing perhaps the most thoughtful antagonist since Ed Harris in The Rock (Michael Bay, 1996). While he may have left Howard stranded completely naked in the trunk of his car early in the film, there is genuine relief and joy on his face later as Howard’s big bet pays off.
S is for Safdies. – Sexy, seedy, suspenseful, any of these words could have gone here, but it had to be the Safdies. There are some films that when I first read their IMDb pages I cannot think about anything else for the rest of the day, such as when I first heard about The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent, 2019), a revenge western about colonialism, and The Brigands of Rattlecreek, an upcoming western written by S. Craig Zahler and directed by Park Chan-Wook(!!!!), but perhaps no film’s IMDb page appealed to me more than Uncut Gems. Obviously, Sandler played a large part in that, Mike Francesca too, but the Safdie brothers were the main reason. I felt a sense of security when I saw their names and I knew this film would be great. Over the past ten years, they have been making some of the tensest thrillers that by the end of the film you notice that you’ve actually scratched a chunk out of the seat like in Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017). It’s great getting to see old-school filmmakers such as them, James Mangold, and James Gray get to tell their stories with significant studio support without having to resort to comic book franchises.
T is for Theology. – Religion is ever-present in this film. Not only is it incredibly Jewish and proud of this, but there is religious imagery throughout from Julie’s cross necklace to her angelic presence. Scorsese has spoken at length about old-testament filmmaking and non-judgemental movies that have characters that are not completely moral but we feel empathy towards, a way to see how far one can go and still be forgiven. This film slots in perfectly here as Howard is an old-testament tragic figure who errs and is punished for it but remains a figure we care for and feel for.
U is for Ugly – When I was thinking about this film and the Safdie brothers’ work in general, I was going to describe them as beautiful films about ugly characters trying to survive in ugly worlds. I then listened to multiple interviews with them and they put it far more eloquently by describing this world as garish but beautiful, saying that they were inspired by the architecture of Michael Graves. From Howard’s clothes to the jewellery he sells, everything about him is in your face, just as the people he interacts with are in his face. As the post-Marvel generation of cinephiles takes to Twitter to call for more clear-cut good vs bad characters in films, the Safdies work perfectly in this shade of grey – a realistic, ugly shade.
V is for Victory – “This is how I win” is maybe the most iconic line from this film apart from “I’m gonna cum”. Howard, Kevin Garnett, all the characters in this film, are obsessed with winning and why wouldn’t they be? They live in a capitalist world driven by greed. After spending almost $200,000 on an opal in order to beat the 76ers, KG questions the ethics of buying an opal relatively cheaply from Ethiopians before selling it on for massive profits, Howard doesn’t flinch at this remark and he throws it back in KG’s face, questioning why he runs the score up on opponents when the game is essentially over. Howard knows that in order to win in this world you must be ruthless as the rich get richer. For him, gentlemanly conduct has no place in business as it has no place in sport. However, as this is a religious tale, earthly possessions and success at the loss of others will never go unpunished and after Howard’s biggest victory, comes an irrecoverable loss.
W is for Wardrobe. – The Gucci shirts with the tags still on. Howard’s leather jacket; LaKeith Stanfield’s orange hoodie; Dinah’s Bat Mitzvah dress that still fits her; everything Julia wears. THE GLASSES! Every single outfit is perfect. After this and Good Time, it’s clear that costume designer Miyako Bellizzi has great taste, especially for hoodies.
X is for Xenophobia – Uncut Gems takes place in 2012, but there is no better year for it to come out than now. There have been multiple anti-Semitic attacks on Synagogues in recent years; disgusting acts fuelled by hate that seek to strike fear and shame into people, but this film is proudly Jewish. Sandler is one of the most famous Jewish actors, who has incorporated this identity into his work such as in ‘The Chanukah Song’ and ‘Bar Mitzvah Boy’. The characters’ heritage is key to the film and their relationships with one another, including a brilliant sequence as Howard celebrates Passover with his wife Dinah’s family, which is both touching and stressful as all family meals are.
Y is for Young – This is only the fourth feature film directed by the Safdie brothers. These are two of the most exciting young filmmakers in the world. The future of cinema is seen by many as in the best case, uncertain, and in the worst case, bleak, due to Hollywood studios’ insistence on only producing non-threatening known intellectual property, as well as the shift from proper theatrical releases to streaming platforms. But it is young directors, such as the Safdies, who have made a name for themselves in the last decade, along with the distinct visions of Mati Diop, Chloe Zhao or Nia DaCosta that give me hope for the future of film.
Z is for Zebra – They say a zebra can’t change its stripes and for Howie that’s unfortunately true, but not for Sandler who has been incredibly diverse throughout his career. I began by talking about Sandler and it’s only right to end it this way too. Almost every Sandler role, whether comedic or dramatic, has a little bit of his trademark psychotic energy. It is this screw that’s slightly loose that puts him in rarefied air alongside other comedians like Jim Carrey who are capable of creating captivating serious characters. The role of Howard was written for Sandler and it feels like it; he fits perfectly alongside other unstable, lovable losers like Happy Gilmore and Robbie Hart. Howard Ratner is also different from some of his past roles, as the performance is far more tragic than comic. In recent times, Sandler’s output has been questioned and ridiculed and the past decade probably wasn’t his best but his latest work, from The Meyerowitz Stories (Noah Baumbach, 2017) to The Week Of (Robert Smigel, 2018) and especially his brilliant stand-up special 100% Fresh (2018), has given us a look at an older, slightly more refined and far more introspective Sandler. Yet,he never strays too far from an adolescent joke and, to be honest, I don’t really want him to. This performance is Sandler’s best, but it is still a quintessential Sandler movie in the sense that the best way to describe it is fun. Upon leaving the cinema, smiling from ear to ear, all I could think was ‘Oh Sandman that’s never too much’.
Full Time
