Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Uncut Gems 

This is another masterful beautiful achievement by the Safdie Brothers who deliver a gripping and tense filled story with a career best performance from Adam Sandler! These filmmakers gave one of the best films of 2017 with their incredible film Good Time which I absolutely love and can’t stop talking about as I think that Good Time is a masterful film. That is so gripping with outstanding storytelling and performances and here they once again deliver another top notch film with Uncut Gems. They bring this adrenaline rush of a story to the screen and it’s constant the film never lets you breath and from the moment it starts you are glued to the story that unfolds as it’s full of twist and turns that keep you on your toes. I have so much to say about this film as it truly is another incredible film from these filmmakers. 

Firstly, The tone of this film is incredible as it just emotionally shatters you and gives you not a moment to recover as for the lead character of this film time is a luxury he cannot afford and the filmmakers really use that to their advantage as this film is very much a ticking clock as the music constantly is shifting through scenes and the situations the character puts himself in just keeps you so emotionally stressed. As the Safdie’s create this really immersive world that you are so in awe by and we just see the consequences this man makes and the sheer emotional and psychical pain he puts himself through. You the viewer get more and more stressed and tense as the film progresses as the film keeps accelerating until everything comes to ahead and the feel of this film is fantastic as yes it is about this jewel dealer who owes money to a lot of people but it is so much more then that this film is so layered with detail and rich meaning theirs so many messages and tones in this film it is not a thinly structured script but one with great emotional effect that hits you hard. the messages this film grapples with is addiction, family, self destruction and these tones are so well tackled and touched upon in the film. That is one of the key factors of what makes this film so damn engaging is the tone and look of the world we are thrown into that is just so beautifully done by the Safdie’s.

Secondly, The film is a outstanding study on character depth and consequences as Uncut Gems really makes it hard for the viewer to keep rooting for this character as he is not a likeable person he actually is very shady and he puts himself in these really bad situations but that is the brilliance of the story at hand and how it wrote this character as even through all of the ugliness he presents onscreen and even through his poor decisions you still feel a small amount of sympathy for him and want him to succeed in the end which is amazing as it kept me in constant pull and tug of how did I feel about this character it keeps toying with your emotions if you should root for him or not and I loved that aspect of the story on top of fact of the performances of the film given by the entire cast. Adam Sandler gives the performance of a lifetime as he shines in what I think is the best work of his career as he gives a performance unlike anything we have seen him in before as he shines in every scene of this film chewing up each scene in such rich emotion that hits you like a brick. Then you have the great supporting performances from the cast a great stand out in the film was Julia Fox who gives this great supporting performance which shockingly is her first ever film which I found surprising as I found her to be fantastic in this film giving a great performance that was so complex. Everyone else was also great all giving top notch performances and bringing the characters to such life with their great commitment to the characters. 

Lastly, Uncut Gems rips through you emotionally and leaves you amazed and makes you want to rewatch it again and again this is another knockout from the Safdie Brothers who cement themselves as top notch filmmakers that truly now have become one of my new favourite directors working today as they bring this tension filled emotional gripping story That stays with you long after the credits roll as it also is filled with a career best performance from Adam Sandler and overall giving one of the best films of the year and a film that will leave you amazed Uncut Gems is a beautiful piece of film that deserves to be seen multiple times I recommend everyone go see this film. 

This story revolves around this guy named Howard who is a jewel dealer in New York City who is addicted to gambling and when he gets sent this rare item and lends it out to someone for the night and the next day when he does not receive it he runs into some very deep water which he battles to get himself out of

Rated R : for pervasive strong language, violence, some sexual content and brief drug use

Adam Sandler : Adam Sandler  gives the performance of a lifetime in a performance that will have your jaw on the floor! Sandler is well known for his comedic work in films like happy Gilmore and Big Daddy but here he gives a performance unlike anything he has ever done as what I love about Sandler is when he shifts and does drama as he has delved into dramatic roles before with films like Punch drunk love and Reign over me but here he shows an entirely different side to him that blew me away. He plays this sleazy New York City Jewel dealer that puts himself into these situations that are very hard for him to recover from and Sandler plays it so brilliantly. As he constantly is tugging on your heart strings to keep rooting for him despite the shady things he is doing in order to keep his head above water. He consumes this character head on by changing his speech patterns to the way he looked and walked. The sheer passion and emotional highs and lows he hits in this film is heartbreaking and compelling to witness as their is a scene where he just breaks down and cracks emotionally and his raw emotional feelings just pour out in such a authentic and very real way that makes you really feel for him as he is in a puddle of tears desperate not knowing what to do. You can see the emotional pain on Adam’s face and in his voice as he goes so deep emotionally in ways I didn’t expect that astonished me as his character goes through such an emotional arc that makes him so different then what he was in the beginning of the film and Adam delivers that task of showing sides to him that require very deep rooted emotional depth that seems so genuine.  He brings this emotional vulnerability to the screen that I have never seen Adam channel onscreen before as well as showing such a serious side with anger and such frustration. You can see how natural it comes across on screen he is cast so perfectly for this role you can see the complete passion in his eyes and when the highs are high oh he is on cloud 9 but when he is low he goes very desperate. That is what is so great about his performance is that it is so multi layered in complexity as Adam provides the emotional layers needed in order to play this character and just knocks it out of the park. When he speaks so fast and so passionately you can feel the honesty he believes he is speaking onscreen as he brings the words to such life. He gives a captivating performance that is truly the best work he has ever done and I hope to see him in more films like this as it shows that given the right script and direction Sandler can deliver high caliber performances. As this film proves that greatly overall Sandler gives a truly outstanding performance that is truly electric stealing each frame of this film with his sheer brilliant work. 

Julia Fox : Julia Fox gives a incredible supporting performance! This actress has never done a film before Uncut Gems which is crazy as she seems like a natural in this film you would never of thought that this would be her first onscreen role and that amazed me as she gave such a terrific performance that is not what it seems a first glance. She plays the mistress to the main character and she easily could of played this as a one note character and she is not a one note character but a really vital character that plays great importance to the story and the outcome of the events by the third act of this film she really brings her performance into high gear as yes she plays this very bubbly character at first glance but we see over the course of this film the many layers the character has and how similar she is to Adam Sandler’s character and how she is as much as a hustler like Adam’s character is and that is what makes the two of them perfect for one another and in that role she finds this really sweet humanity to the character of wanting to be loved by him despite some of the things she does that can seem very bad you feel very much for her and Julia brings this emotional softness to the scenes with Adam and you can see the love she has for him and then when she is frustrated she can be in a fast pace of words flying a mile a minute and you can see the genuine love but damn stress he causes her too and she brings that so greatly to the screen with her expressive emotional depth that keeps you engaged into her performance to the very end as she can be charming but also very cunning. She is not just a character that falls into the background but rather a vital part of the story that stands out due to the great performance that is provided by Julia Fox in a emotional vulnerable performance of great complexity that you can’t take your eyes off of. 

The Safdie Brothers : These two filmmakers are brilliant just freaking brilliant! They gave one of the best films of 2017 with their incredible film Good Time which is a outstanding piece of film and here they give another solid film that is a madness drenched film of sheer emotional stress that keeps you engaged to the very end. They wrote and directed a film that feels like a ticking clock that can explode at any moment and their is this feeling of tension that just keeps building and building over the course of the story and they set up the stakes that the character has to over come and then we just see the sheer madness that he is driven to through It al they put him through absolute hell and he gets battered emotionally and psychically and that is what I love about their films is that they feel very much about character study’s of the character and their motivation they did that with Good Time and do it here in such a brilliant way its impossible to think of a style that is like theirs they are carving their very own style of filmmaking that is brilliance and here they grapple with very hard hitting themes of addiction Good Time was about brotherhood and this one is how addiction can eat you up from the inside and completely destroy you and we see the self destructive path this character goes on and they keep us rooting for him even though he is not a likeable character but its due to the way of how strongly and sharply the story has been written you can’t help but love the lead character and the people around him as well. The film tackles the discussions of addiction in a very honest and brutal way that hits you like a brick they do not sugar coat it they show how ugly it can get and how emotionally low you can get from it and I love their realistic approach not just to the message of addiction but to the tone of the film in general it has this very realistic feel that is brilliantly done and the way the dialogue is written feel so natural and genuine that is dose not even feel scripted on top of the fact they got such great performances from the entire cast The Safdie Brothers has once again written and directed another captivating piece of film that emotionally exhausts you but thrills you all at once these two filmmakers are amazing. 

The Score : This film has one of the most beautiful pieces of composed music I have heard this year as the film has this very deep and bombastic sound that perfectly captures the insanity of the tone. The film’s music is one of the sheer stand outs as well as It really is its own character in the film as it brings such a fast paced sound that you think would lower but never does very much like the story the film never lets you breath and it expresses the feel and the fast pace of the film perfectly through the melodies crafted for this film the score is so beautiful and creative in its way of using music to match the scene.