Really, the cocaine-ness of Uncut Gems is a culmination of the Safdies’ filmography. “Because the general PR of cocaine is that it makes you really energetic.” “I think cocaine, in general, is a cool analogy,” says Josh. Well, if snorting coke is their favourite hobby in the world, then it’s a compliment? “They’re like, ‘I lost 15lbs by the end of it.’ So I can hear that and translate that into: what we’re doing with the pace, the narrative, the action, the sound, the music – it’s all working to create a feeling, and some people are saying they can’t handle it.” “I think people say it with the idea that it’s a total energy boost,” says Benny. “It’s the worst thing in the world! It makes people sound like idiots.” “I’ve done it and it’s terrible,” says Josh, laughing. “I would like to ask how many of them have actually done it,” says Benny. It just means people are totally energised by it.” “It’s a bit pejorative, you know?” says Josh. Within an hour of the world premiere at Telluride, journalists from prestige publications tweeted that it was “cocaine the movie” and “cocaine-fuelled”. Although Howard achieves a natural high via basketball, critics have praised the film as a “wild injection of pure cocaine” (The Playlist), “the cinematic equivalent to mixing cocaine with acid” (LA Weekly) and “a cinematic snort of cocaine” (Uproxx). That gusto and unbridled enthusiasm permeates Uncut Gems. An accurate transcript would require two columns. Once sat down, the siblings speak at breakneck speed, often over each other, much like the loquacious characters of their films. A minute later, Benny receives a call from Sandler, too. Walking in, Josh tells Sandler over the phone that he’s too busy to chat right now. So much so, the interview is delayed slightly as they deal with a New Yorker profile that will be published a few days later. When the Safdie brothers visit London in early December, it’s amidst fever pitch anticipation for the theatrical release and a possible Oscar nomination for Sandler. We’re leaning into it in a heavy, heavy way.” “There’s a whole tradition of literature and journalism about sports as a means to understand life. “We want people to feel what it’s like to really care about a basketball game,” Benny explains to Dazed. However, the NBA footage itself is riveting, especially when a missed rebound could mean lights out for Howard. Here, Howard is an athlete, his sport is capitalism, and the viewer must resist chucking popcorn at the screen. For all the excitement cinema offers as a medium, Benny and Josh Safdie's comedy-thriller is the only movie in recent memory that captures the nail-biting tension of a live sports event. Uncut Gems, then, is stressful to the extreme. Gambling, to Howard, is an all-consuming, biological urge, and if death is a potential outcome of a lost wager, then he’ll just hope that fate and today’s referee are on his side. As his parlays increase in foolhardy ambition, such as guessing who will win the tip-off, the stakes rise so high they could induce vertigo. Despite owing $100,000 to a loan shark with shark-like goons, Howard endangers his life by ignoring deadlines and placing outrageous sums on basketball games. All Howard sees, though, is a smuggled rock that will fund another betting spree – which is, in a way, his entire universe. It’s said that one can view the entire universe within the iridescent, elegant surface of a black opal. When Howard Ratner, a New York jeweller played by Adam Sandler, receives a dead fish in the post, he reaches inside the cold creature’s mouth, plucks a black opal from its slimy innards, and involuntarily moans, “I’M GONNA CUM!!!” In Uncut Gems, diamonds are a compulsive gambler’s best friend.
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