Uncut gems movie#

When he stares into the glittering gem, he’s transported through it, much as we were in the opening scene, seeing his past and the gem’s history all tangled up.

(That rock’s gonna make him a million at auction!) Unfortunately, so does Kevin Garnett, who feels a spiritual connection to the opal and believes it will boost his game. RELATED: The 10 Best Criterion Collection Releases of 2021īut because Howard has his gem, he believes he has it all. He breezes through his spiel with that sickening grin slapped on his face, barely even taking a minute to acknowledge the deadly serious henchman of his bookie, Arno ( Eric Bogosian), who’ve come to collect on a $100,000 debt. Howard waxes poetic about the opal, bragging about the fortune he's about to make at auction.

Uncut gems movie#

While KG is touring the store, Howard’s attentions are pulled to an even bigger bounty, the precious black opal we saw in the opening moments of the movie finally making its way from Africa to his hands. He rushes over, wowing KG and his entourage with an iconic, blinged-out Furby, but it’s only a matter of minutes before it happens again. But Howard’s already got his eye on his next big 'win': NBA star Kevin Garnett is in his store looking to spend, and just in time for playoffs, which means another opportunity to bet big. In short, he owes a mountain of money to some dangerous people, but that's not gonna stop Howard from being Howard.īefore the opening credits even finish, Howard’s bookie is pleading with him to take one thing at a time so he can finish placing a bet.

But it’s not until Howard leaves his doctor’s office that we start to understand he’s facing much more immediate threats thanks to a risky gambling addiction. Despite his selfishness, depravity and sheer greed, there’s a strange admiration for such pure American tenacity.The film establishes the matter of Howard’s imminent mortality out of the gate his colonoscopy found a mass and he'll need a biopsy to test for cancer. Doggedly pursuing this mantra, Howard disregards his wife, family and business to get as close as possible to achieving his own dream. Such forms a cauldron of intensity, exhilaration and delirium that well expresses the identity of a city that hinges on its promise that anyone can try to be anything. You layer them together, you add dialogue, and then you add music”. It’s cars, it’s a baby crying, it’s construction, it’s a siren, it’s a freeway in the background. As Benny Safdie tells Dazed, “Recreating a New York City Street isn’t just slapping on a New Your City ambience.

This mosaic of blinding visual noise and sound effects helps to well reflect a disorientating city well beyond our previous knowledge of cinematic depiction. Wildly strutting the streets of the city with drug-fuelled aimless purpose, Howard Ratner is a struggling businessman and a failing gambler who’s loving every minute of living on a constant knife-edge. With an astonishing kinetic vitality fuelling this romp around America’s busiest city, the Safdie brothers sculpt a cast of characters that look and feel as if they’ve just walked off Diamond Jewelry Way. Bustling with fury, excitement and frissons of electricity, the Safdie brothers bottle the essence of New York, pierce the retinas of the audience with a Powerade-fuelled adrenaline rush that provides the best impression of the city possible without being there in person. Ratner isn’t the only one pursuing such a dream, however, with seemingly the whole cast (including the extras) each in the wild, frenzied race for financial supremacy in the busiest city in the world. 10 films that perfectly capture the city they’re based in