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Reviews
Uncut Gems (2019)
One of the best movies of 2019
I have suffered only a few panic attacks in my time. Without going into medical and psychological jargon, I can tell you that it feels as if all the stress of the world is focused on you along with increase in heart rate; basically it feels as if you are going crazy with worry, while having a heart attack. Without mimicking the feelings and in all the most entertaining ways Uncut Gems is a two hour panic attack. However, do not in any way allow this to deter you from seeing this phenomenal flick. I was on the edge of my seat and in a constant state of suspense throughout the entire runtime. The movie hits you like a bolt of adrenaline.
The basic story of the movie revolves around Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a diamond district jeweler in 2012, New York. Ratner is in a very stress film environment that could pop at any moment. He owes $100,000 to load shark Arno (Eric Bogosian) who is growing impatient and sending hired muscle to rough Ratner up in order to "encourage" him to pay his debt. His long suffering wife Dinah (Idina Menzel) wants a divorce, his mistress Julia (Julia Fox) is requiring a more lavish lifestyle that Ratner can afford, and he is alienating nearly everyone around him with his scheming ways and crippling gambling addiction.
Everything seems lost until Ratner receives an extremely rare opal (an Uncut Gem) from Ethiopia, that took him over and a year and a half to obtain. He is planning on selling to at an auction that all but guarantees him to net at least one million dollars. But things get interesting when he lends his favorite NBA player, Kevin Garnett (playing himself) the opal when the player becomes enamored with it and promises to return it the following day. Soon Ratner's life becomes a constant spiral of peril when Garnett fails to return the opal, and Ratner cannot get ahold of him, along with Arno getting more "physical" with Ratner to pay him his money along with his gambling debts that are getting so bad that his bookie is pretty much begging with him to take a break.
The biggest surprise about the film is just how good Adam Sandler is as Howard Ratner. I never thought I would be praising Sandler's performance based on his track record of films. I mean, he is usually synonymous with crude, juvenile, and lame humor, atrocious movies, and obnoxious, annoying characters. This role allows him to become the selfish and irresponsible jeweler. His infectious grin, used car salesman demeanor, and charisma make him seem as if he was born for his profession. It is to the credit of Sandler that he makes the character likable and sympathetic. As impulsive and crazy as Howard may be, I could not help but root for him and wanting him to come away unscathed even though he keeps digging himself a bigger hole. He loves to gamble, because he desires the suspense. He's the type of person who could win one billion dollars and blow his entire earning in bets by the end of the weekend. It's a crime that Sandler failed to receive an Oscar nomination.
The other performances are all very good also Idina Menzel does have a little bit of the thankless role of playing Howard's put upon wife. Although, at first she seems to always be complaining and putting her husband down, but when think about what she most likely put up with for 15 years it seems like she is letting him off easy. Kevin Garnett does decent job at playing a hopefully exaggerated version of himself and is not afraid of making his character idiotic and unlikable. Judd Hirsch briefly appears in the movie as Howard father-in-law and does an admirable job. Julia Fox is a newcomer but tackles her role like a seasoned pro as Howard's much younger, but loyal and loving girlfriend. Also Eric Bogosian still working which is great to know and illustrates why he needs to do more films period.
This is the second film I have seen from the Safdie Brothers who blew me away with the similar character study with Good Time in 2017, demonstrating that Robert Pattinson can act when given great material. Uncut Gems never lets up for the entire runtime, whether you are seeing Howard getting chased by loan sharks at his daughter's school play, pawning valued sports memorabilia to get quick cash to place his bets, or asking his father-in-law Gooey (Judd Hirsch) to help drive up a price at an auction neither have the money for in order for him to net more of a profit for the opal Howard is auctioning. The film is 2 hours and 15 minutes and I enjoyed every second of it. It is a shame that the movie did not get a best picture nomination at the Academy Awards, because it was the most deserving film that year. This is one film you do not want to miss and is the best movie of 2019.
Final Grade: A+
Chronic (2015)
It may be hard to watch, but it is touching and meaningful
The movie Chronic demands of its viewers to have something the protagonist has in abundance, patience. While this may not sound like the highest recommendation for a movie, but it is in this movie's case. Chronic is not an entertaining film in a sense that you have an anticipation to see the new Avengers or Star Wars movie. It has no action, fight scenes, sex, or drugs, just important questions the viewer is left with after the movie. At times I did feel like the movie had scenes that dragged on longer than necessary, the film has stayed with me.
Chronic is about a hospice nurse named David (Tim Roth) who works with a variety of terminally ill patients. One of them is an elderly architect named John (Michael Cristofer), who recently suffered a stroke and is full of anger. The second is Martha (Robin Bartlett) a lonely older woman who is going through chemotherapy whose condition is getting worse each day. Each of these patients David treats as if they were his own family: bathing them, taking them to the bathroom, dressing them, preparing their medication, getting them ready for bed, and sitting in a chair near them in case they need anything in the middle of the night.
Now describing the movie sounds like a depressing story and it is. The movie shows scenes that last minutes of David cleaning and dressing his patients that sometimes last minutes and you may question why the movie deems it necessary to continue filming the scenes this long. I believe it is trying to get the viewer use to how dependent the patient is to David and how patient he is with them. But if you do allow yourself to be patient with the scenes it will pay off in the end. I am intentionally leaving off most of the plot, because it is best going into the film with no idea of what will happen to the characters and their lives.
The movie's strongest feature is the acting, specifically by Tim Roth. Roth has long been a talented character actor constantly evolving and transforming into his characters: whether it's the deviously evil royalty seeking Cunningham in Rob Roy, the tormented Vincent Van Gogh in Vincent & Theo, or the (only enjoyable part of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes) man hating ape General Thade. Roth is always a delight, and, in this movie, he completely carries it. Throughout the scenes where he is cleaning patients that have soiled themselves, he displays patience, compassion, and devotion. It would be hard to watch a movie with this depressing content without a protagonist to root for and David is one you want to see happy because you see how much he cares about people. But we see that he is depressed and deeply troubled by an event in his past. I would go more into his backstory but discovering it is one of the joys the movie offers, as it allows you to piece it together without spoon-feeding it to you.
This movie was awarded the prestigious honor of best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 to its writer/director Michael Franco. I find this a little strange, since the movie is filled with long takes of people doing ordinary tasks such as driving, exercising, cooking, or David doing one of his numerous duties for his patience that the movie is very thin on plot, but big on character. Chronic is definitely not a movie for everyone and some people maybe too off put by the down-beat story and overly long scenes, but for audience members eager to be left with questions, thoughts, and debates after a film along with a tour-de-force performance by Tim Roth will be strongly rewarded.
Final Grade: B