Uncut Gems is a movie set during Passover and should be analyzed through that lens—the meal that the Hebrews, who were in bondage to the Egyptian, had as the Angel of Death boomeranged Pharoah’s curses on Israel on the Egyptians because they are God’s chosen people. The Egyptians forgot God’s grace, and Joseph’s role in their redemption and Passover is a way for Jewish people not to commit the same sin, to not forget how the Lord delivered them from slavery and to keep a covenant with the Lord. I am not Jewish, and the problem with being raised Christian fundamentalist in Manhattan is being taught to believe that you know a lot about Judaism and Jewish culture, but actually know far less than you think that you do though probably more than the average Gentile so take the following with a grain of salt. Adam Sandler stars as a jewelry store owner, Howard Ratner, who believes that he is taking the best actions to obtain freedom from the slavery of debt accrued because of a gambling addiction and an inability to rest.
I have never seen a Safdie Brothers film before, but I saw the previews for Good Time and consciously decided not to see it because I already watch way more films starring Robert Pattinson than I would like because great directors clearly love to work with him, and the idea of a developmentally disabled person in jeopardy even theoretically is an abomination to me so once I realized that they were directing Uncut Gems, I figured that it would have that same energy, the misfit anything can go wrong in a short time energy of a seventies sitcom with none of the safety or reassurances. Even seeing the preview with Sandler, who generally is a good actor if he sticks to a specific range, The Meyerowitz Stories and Punch Drunk Love, was not enough to convince me to see it. I already live at a faster pace than I would like, and widespread tweets highlighted that this film made them feel anxious. I do not need that negativity in my life, but by its fourth week, someone who is very familiar with the type of stress that I face convincingly reassured that I would not leave the theater a bundle of nerves. There was an uncharacteristic clamor for me to see this film by friends with good film taste so by the sixth week, I was finally read to see it in theaters.
Uncut Gems is the anti-Guy Ritchie film, a crime dramedy thriller that triggers the same responses in the audience, but so rooted in realism that we cling to familiar narratives to reassure ourselves that everything will work out for the protagonist even though it really should not. There is the narrative of the hustle that this time, the protagonist is right and really will hit it big so all the earlier transgressions will be washed away so he can live to dig another deep hole and become triumphant, the person that he always believed himself to be, ascendant, a winner. There is also the narrative of God supernaturally intervening to save His people from the powerful, dominant forces of the world, for the underdog to get the upperhand and the last word. The Safdie Brothers are really deft at exploiting our familiarity with these narratives and making us struggle with our quotidian knowledge of how the real world works. We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but they extend the scheme a little longer, make things work out for Howard just enough that we buy into his delusion that just one more gamble will get him out of trouble even as know that all of his decisions are (hopefully) counter to anything that we would do, and everyone’s life would be a little better if he could just sit still and live fully in the moment instead of constantly chasing a dream.
As a New Yorker, I have always felt there was an unspoken albeit tenuous narrative that Jewish and Black people shared as people who emerged from slavery, a cultural Venn diagram path to freedom and triumph that looked different and had disparate results yet overlapped in many ways. I won’t go into a more substantive analysis of race in Uncut Gems, but there really is this fascination with the universal story of Jewish people existing and surviving regardless of race or region, a unity that also at best acts as a bridge and makes for one people and at worst is ignored to replicate the inequities that exist in the wider world. This film plays with that tension, the seed of hope or condemnation.
Unlike The Gentleman, as we discover how people are connected, the behavior of the characters simultaneously makes more sense and is more baffling. If you have to deal with the same people every day, why would you jeopardize those relationships by treating them like an elaborate pyramid scheme? Yes, it means that they are less likely to take extreme measures against you if you violate their trust, but it also means that you have damaged your reputation and harmed those closest to you. Howard is incapable of comprehending the ripple effect that his actions have on others and himself, and that even if he erases his debt, he cannot erase the wrong. He is not the only one with something on the line depending on something to break his way to get out of trouble. Idina Menzel’s performance is amazing, but the real gem is Eric Bogosian’s performance as Arno. Do not assume that you understand Arno’s character based on the introduction. If you really pay attention to Bogosian and other little, understated moments, you can predict the denouement even as you discard it based on what you learn as the story unfolds.
Trigger warning because one plague is depicted on screen in a micro, literal way, which may upset you fish lovers. Uncut Gems should make you ask yourself who is Howard in this Passover story? When the film started, I actually asked myself if I was in the wrong theater. The grittiness of life on the streets or in the mines contrasted with the mystical, awe-inspiring invoking of space felt like a shout out to H. G. Wells. Space is not the final frontier because there are still inner fathoms to explore that cannot be accessed by simple observation with a camera. Scientific understanding of value, appraisal, does not erase the emotional, transcendent connection that we have with our relationship to the material world. The (un)holy ground in this film is the shared wonder inspired by an object, a delusion that crosses time and space. It is the trap of a narcissist, navel gazing of the most dangerous kind that makes you forget that you are drowning in a puddle and makes your ears deaf to the warnings that it is not as valuable as you think. Who does your help come from?
I applaud the Safdie Brothers rigorous commitment to their vision, and for successfully leading me by the nose and keeping me off kilter so I doubted my initial assessment long enough to be surprised by the end. I actually wanted the movie to go a little longer to see more of what happened, to get the reaction of the characters. It does not mean that I would voluntarily go to another Safdie Brothers film because I live my life crossing the street to avoid that drama, but everyone loves to watch a train wreck.