We open up in Ethiopia in 2010 where miners have found a very rare and beautiful gem.
This is definitely one of the most mesmerizing intros ever.
We’re inside of a gemstone! Speaking of gems, welcome to Uncut Gems!
Spoiler alert. While I’m giving you my opinion on the film, that doesn’t mean
that you shouldn’t try it out for yourself. Links to the film are in the description.
I was wrong! I was horribly wrong! It’s not a gemstone! Definitely not!
Now we’re in New York City in 2012, and we’re following Howard through a busy cityscape
after his colonoscopy. After he gets to his jewelry store, two men are there to collect
on some debt that he owes someone, and they end up taking all his money and his watch.
After he heads home, he finds out that his girlfriend, Julia,
had a party the night before, and that’s why she wasn’t answering him before.
Are you kidding me? Of course I’m going to stay mad! And of course I’m going to cuddle!
Oh man. Decisions. Decisions. This might not be really important to the story,
but we all know he chose to cuddle in the end. Later on, Howard goes back to work where he finds
Kevin Garnett waiting for him. Kevin’s security causes problems with the debt collectors who
are back for Howard, and Howard’s employees even got roughed up a bit. As Howard tries
to close some sort of deal with Kevin, he ends up getting everyone he has a relationship with
mad at him, but that doesn’t matter after a shipment comes for him.
Howard opens the box to reveal a box of fish, but when he pulls the fish out, he pulls out carefully
wrapped packages from inside the fish. That’s such a waste of perfectly good fish. He
better take that fish home or sell some to Kevin Garnett at least. There’s something about raw
gemstones that is just mesmerizing. I can’t even blame him for getting wrapped up in the gems.
As he brings the gem out to Garnett, Kevin gets so caught up in the gem that he feels
himself being an absolute beast in his next game if he keeps the gem with him.
He barters a deal with Howard that he’ll leave him his championship ring if he lets him keep
the gem for the night. Howard takes the deal and goes to another pawn broker to pawn Kevin’s ring.
After that he goes to his bookie to place a bet on Kevin that would make anyone’s head spin.
This feels like a crazy roulette bet, but he obviously has problems with handling his money,
so none of this is really a shocker. I’d be more surprised if he actually was financially stable,
but between the bookie that knows him by name, the hustlers trying to collect debt, and the fact that
he just PAWNED KEVIN GARNETT’S CHAMPIONSHIP RING, I think it’s safe to say he has a problem.
That night, Howard is home watching the game when his wife, Dinah,
comes out and asks if he’s going to tuck his child in. After she makes him go up, he comes back down,
and we find out that they are getting ready to tell the kids that they are getting a divorce. In
the meantime, Howard turns on the game again. Definitely wasn’t expecting that at all.
Howard gets in a taxi to go meet his girlfriend at her apartment, and while he does,
he watches the final minutes and stats of the game. His bet came through, and he’s won big this
time. The next morning, he meets his guy, Demany, to get the gem back from Kevin, but it turns out,
Kevin decided to keep the gem for himself. Howard makes Demany drive them to Philadelphia to get it
back, but he ditches him outside the facility. That night, Howard goes with his family to the
school play that his daughter is playing, but he spots the collectors a few rows back,
waiting for him. He gets up and asks them to come out and talk to him in the hallway.
Hey! If that’s the only way you think you can win, you do what you’ve got to do.
Has anyone here been bitten before?! Like, actually bitten. It’s no joke!
Howard takes off backstage, and he even takes the time to wish his daughter good luck.
Once he runs outside, he notices a car pulling around to come after him,
and the two guys from inside start to give chase. After they catch up, they kidnap him
in Arno’s SUV, and Arno explains that he doesn’t appreciate Howard waltzing around with his money.
After they explain that they knew about the bet he placed, Howard finds out that
Arno stopped the bet. That’s $600,000 that Howard ended up not getting.
They end up stripping Howard and stuffing him in the trunk of his car.
Howard calls Dinah to help him get out, but when she finds him naked in the trunk,
she rolls her eyes and leaves him there. Honestly, I’d probably be done with him too.
If I found out my significant other had been so deep in crap with money that the local mob
was stuffing them naked in the trunk, I’d say that’s a sign that it’s time to move on.
Once they get home, Howard gets dressed to go to an event, and he gets a hold of Demany who he
tells to go to the event with him. Howard tries to connect with his daughter before he leaves,
but it doesn’t go as well as he had hoped. Later on, he gets to the party that The Weeknd
is performing at, and he runs into Demany who tells him that Kevin actually still has the gem.
Then, Howard finds out that Julia is actually in the bathroom alone with The Weeknd.
That makes everything all better doesn’t it? We were just doing a little coke is all! Up close
and personal coke. How do you really defend any of that? That’s how you know you’re doing something
you shouldn't be doing. When you use a bad thing you shouldn’t be doing as a defense instead of
the other bad thing? When you can’t even come up with a good reason, you know you messed up.
Howard leaves on his own and goes to sleep in an apartment instead of home. The next day,
Howard goes to work where he is hit with every possible problem he could have.
Julia calls and says that she wants to talk about what happened the night before,
the appraiser at the auction says she has to have the stone by the end of the day or he’s pulled,
Kevin ends up showing up but gets mad when he can’t buy the stone, and Demany is
throwing a fit for all of the business that Howard is saying he is handling wrong.
Howard somehow makes it to the end of the day, but he only has fifteen minutes to make it to the
auction house. After that, Howard goes to see his father in law and the rest of the family.
It’s here that we see that Howard and Arno are actually related!
They are FAMILY?! I feel like that is information that would’ve changed the whole
dynamic of every interaction up until now. As dinner winds down, the men sit around and talk
about the basketball game on TV. As Kevin Garnett comes on screen, Howard begins talking about the
plans for the giant gemstone and the auction on Monday. After it comes time to get ready to leave,
Howard goes to find Dinah, and he tries to talk her into rethinking the divorce. He swears that
he’s going to be done with Julia, and he wants her to forgive him so they can try again.
If anyone has ever been brutally honest, it’s Dinah here. She has had it with all of the crap,
and at this point, who could blame her? She’s obviously known about Julia for quite some time,
so I’d say she’s entitled to feel this way. On the way home, Howard decides that he needs to
stop at the apartment to grab something, but he really wants to see if Julia actually left like
he told her to. When they get there, his oldest son decides that it’s a good time to go to the
bathroom. Howard and his son head upstairs, but Howard has his son use the neighbor’s bathroom.
Once Howard gets in the apartment, he looks around for Julia, but all he finds is a note that says
she hopes he finds what he’s looking for. On the way down to the car, Howard’s son asks
him who the hot lady living in his apartment is, and Howard finds out that the neighbor is
the one that told him. Howard tells him to keep quiet, and the family heads to their own home.
In the morning, Howard heads to the auction where he finds out that his gem
has been knocked down in price from almost a million dollars to 150,000 dollars.
Funny enough, the voice of the auctioneer is none other than Tilda Swinton. She is never actually
seen, but it is definitely her voice. Just as his family shows up for the auction,
Howard asks his father to feed the bids a little bit. He knows that Kevin wants the
gem bad enough to bid outrageously, but he needs a guarantee. After his father agrees to do so,
it turns out that Kevin won’t outbid him at 190,000 dollars.
So now, Howard owes his brother in law, his father, and he still has Kevin’s championship
ring to get back. Things are really starting to look grim for Howard. I mean,
his brother in law literally just locked him in a trunk naked. What’s next?
That is probably one of the sharpest chops I’ve seen in a long time.
He damn near closed his trachea! Howard cleans himself up a little bit,
and he heads for his office where he locks himself in his office and sends everyone home for the day.
As he pulls out the gem to look at it, a knock on the door comes, and Julia comes in to check
on him. Howard tries to send her away, but she tries to ask him what happened to his face.
Howard begins to cry, and Julia follows suit pretty quickly.
These two are literally made for each other. Dinah is not Howard’s soulmate,
and honestly, I don’t think Julia is either.
But these two babies work so well with each other that somehow they carry each other through
most of the crap that comes their way. How did they make it as long as they did?!
Just to show how perfectly messed up they are to each other, Julia takes it a step further!
She literally went out and got this tattoo after he made a scene at The Weeknd party and kicked
her out of the apartment! In what world would she get a tattoo of his name AFTER all of that?!
As Julia helps clean up Howard’s bloody nose, Kevin’s financial advisor calls Howard to see
if he is still willing to sell the gem to Kevin for $175,000. Howard agrees and rejoices as
he leaves his office building and calls Arno to assure him that he’s going to have the money.
Howard heads over and gets Kevin’s championship ring just in time to make it back to make the
deal with Kevin. After he takes Kevin’s entourage up to his office, Kevin pulls him into his office
for a private conversation. After some back and forth, Howard explains to Kevin that this is just
his own way of being able to win. He’s no athlete or anything special, but playing his cards the way
he does is his only way of winning in it all. All of a sudden, Howard has an amazingly wreckless
idea. He decides to take all of the money Kevin just gave him and bet it on the game that night.
He can’t just walk out with the money because Arno is in the lobby waiting for him,
so he has Julia take the money from the neighbor’s window, and she heads out to place the bet.
When Arno and his goons come in, they try to shake Howard down, but Howard won’t back off.
Eventually, Arno and his guys get trapped in the doorway, and Howard refuses to let them go.
Meanwhile, Julia is placing the bet. Yeah. I’d call Chad over there too!
That’s $165,000 dollars that she just dumped out there for everyone to see. If no one was watching
her before, they sure as hell are now. Not to mention, some of Arno’s guys are on the way there
to stop her? I would’ve counted all of it on the helicopter ride over so I could just place the bet
and dip! I’ve got a weird feeling that she’d dip with the winnings if it all works out though.
Back in the city, Howard watches the game with his captors, and it is going phenomenally. Eventually,
it simply comes down to whether the Celtics win or not, and Julia is
watching from the penthouse at the sports bar. I feel like we’re celebrating a little too early,
but somehow things seem to be working out amazingly well.
Oh damn! Surprisingly, I never saw that coming! Not at all! The absolute last thing I expected to
see was him to kill him at point blank like that. And to top it off, he turns around and shoots Arno
point blank too! What did I just watch?! I almost feel sorry for Howard, but when you play with
fire, you’re bound to get shot like that. As we see what happens to everyone else,
we see that Dinah and the kids are enjoying the game and going about their normal business,
Arno’s goons are ransacking Howard’s store, and the helicopter pilot walks the money to
Julia who is waiting in a limousine. As the film shows us the inside of a
gemstone again, it becomes clear that there was really no other way this could’ve gone.
All the infinite possibilities, and this was the only one that made sense.
As quite a few of you may notice, I didn’t include a lot of actual dialogue this time
because Uncut Gems is actually on record for having the fourth highest amount of uses of the f
word. With it being used 560 times, that equals out to be about 4 times a minute.
In light of everything that happened, I’d say this is a phenomenal film. Adam
Sandler’s performance alone was enough to keep me interested. For someone that built his image
around being the screwball, he did a phenomenal job of playing a serious role in a drama.
Thank you so much for watching, and I hope you enjoyed it! Don’t forget to subscribe,
comment what you think I should watch next, and I’ll see you in the next video.