What's going on guys?
I'm Tyler and I'm here to let you know that "Uncut Gems"... is NoPerfectMovie! And it takes place in 2012
New York where Adam Sandler plays a guy who runs his own jewelry store in the Diamond District,
he owes a shit-ton of money to his brother-in-law who just happens to be a loan shark,
but he receives this black opal from Ethiopia that he assumes is worth millions and pro basketball player:
Kevin Garnett played by...
Kevin Garnett-wants to buy it at his auction, and this creates a domino effect that begins to ruin his personal and professional life!
And I was...
'anticipating' this movie; I wasn't super excited by it because I had seen the Safdie brothers' previous movie "Good Time"
and I really liked it-
it lost a lot of steam on second viewing in regards to its pacing but it was still really impressive.
But I heard rumblings about it at TIFF and I got more excited at the fact that Adam Sandler was doing a crime thriller and
not only that... was good in the crime thriller. And that part is especially true because Adam Sandler hasn't been this good in years!
I should make this clear though: He plays the same
generic loud, obnoxious and unlikable character that he's played in 'Happy Madison' movies for decades, but this is a movie that...
acknowledges that and
condemns him from beginning to end for that, and you might be wondering "Well Gee",
"Why are we caring about this character who makes so many shitty mistakes?" Well for me, it's because
even when he's at rock bottom he refuses to
be a victim; when loan sharks come after him, he doesn't run away-he charges straight towards them,
he stands up to them and you just gotta admire how brave he is for that!
The same can be said for Julia Fox as Sandler's
employee and mistress because at first it seems like they have a really codependent relationship
because neither one of them really feels as if they have anyone to look after them in life other than each other and that's kind
of the thing that holds together the
'chemistry' for lack of a better word but as the movie plays on this character, Julia
shows herself to be a pretty brave individual as well.
There are so many celebrities that she encounters as part of her job that makes her
seem like an easy target for these people who are so used to having people bow before them and do whatever they want.
But-no she has barriers. She has limitations.
She doesn't want anybody regardless of how famous they are touching her-regardless of how strong they are.
And that was another very admirable thing about her as a character.
Now let's talk about the Safdie brothers direction because they do a lot of things that are really
effective and a couple things that really took me out of the movie. The things that work was that their use of hand-held
cameras never distracting, it felt like everything was happening spontaneously.
They as usual use a lot of close-ups to make characters feel boxed in as the majority of these events (not all of them
but the majority) take place in real time, they use wide shots to make characters feel completely empty-
which is really hard to do when you're in New York City, but seeing is how
whenever there's a wide shot, characters are looking at the focused ones in
complete shame or surprise, so after a while you just completely forget that anybody else is watching what we are watching.
The thing that
didn't always work for me-and this was something that a lot of people are praising, but I just sat back & went
"Yeah, I don't know about that" was the sound design and sound mixing.
There are a ton of scenes-especially during the first hour where characters are
non-stop shouting over each other trying to get their voices heard! And I understand what the objective of that is, to show Sandler in
an incredibly desperate position where he has to
enunciate everything make himself to be the boss of the situation when he really isn't.
But my problem with that is: A)
It's really hard to focus on what these characters are actually saying or what they want when it isn't always clear!
This is a movie that I feel like I have to watch on Netflix with subtitles in order to
clearly understand what each character wants!
It wasn't as visually told as I would have hoped it would there are certain scenes where
it's very clear visually what they want and what they're trying to say
but there are just as many scenes that aren't. And the other problem is that there are some characters who
are really nowhere in the same position as Sandler, but they still got a shout over him
especially Lakeith Stanfield, who is really good in the movie, but
he's shown to have a pretty successful career outside of helping Sandler
but he's constantly going on and on about certain things that I couldn't always follow!
It's shown that he has a really successful career doing other things
but we just don't know what they are because we never really hear him half the time unless he's shouting a
ton of needless n-words that really
amounted to nothing.
The only time that technique really worked was A) When Sandler is trying to convince Garnett to give him back the opal to
buy other things to work with each other and
you get the sense that a Sandler is such a big shot in his own mind
And Garnett is a big shot because he's a pro basketball player that everybody looks up to and you can really feel the conflict there.
But when Sandler is talking to just random people on the street who are pissing him off it doesn't work and it doesn't feel meaningful.
But the other time that it works
especially during the last third is when it becomes the last straw when these mobsters feels that they can't take it anymore with him and
there are really great uses of claustrophobia when characters are
"Locked in" that's all I'm gonna say. But-and I should make this clear. This is a
completely
unintentional thing that made the sound design a hard thing to sit through is that when characters shout over each other
I feel like it gives audiences permission to talk out loud in theatres!
And I know for a fact that nobody
wants that to happen because then your audience is gonna pay less attention to the movie and just like,
shoot the shit and not even care which is a waste of money in all honesty, but
when these characters are shouting over each other and I'm having a hard enough time just following what they're saying,
it's even harder when the people in front of me, to my left, to my right, behind me
are talking over and over again. They're like "What's this? What's this?" and it's just like...
Shut up! Shut the fuck up and just watch! You can talk about it after the movie!
I mean seriously, how would you like it if you're watching this review and there was some cheap background noise as I'm talking
that completely ruins whatever points I'm trying to nake about this movie?
Seriously, would you like that?! Would it make anything I'm saying or doing in this video completely worth it for you?
Okay,
tangent aside-
I am glad that I saw "Uncut Gems" and I'm probably gonna go back and see it again to like,
get more of a reassessment but I was hoping this would be a movie that I
would regret not putting on my best of the year list, but this would have been a pretty good honorable mention;
It has a great cast, it has a really nice look and style and grittiness to it...
There were just certain aspects that other audiences like more than I do.
And for that reason I'm gonna give "Uncut Gems" a 4/5. Guys, thanks as always for watching!
Let me know in the comments below what you thought of "Uncut Gems", and be sure to LIKE and subscribe!
Take care!