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The Garnett role was actually written with Amar’e Stoudemire - the fellow former NBA star who has converted to Judaism and played pro ball in Israel - in mind. His Jewishness defines him to that world - to Garnett and his posse, he’s a “crazy Jew,” not a crazy jeweler.
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While he fits in comfortably among the other Jews of the Diamond District, he is still a proud outsider to the wider world of wealth with which he regularly interacts. Like the Safdies, who are distant relatives of the famed architect Moshe Safdie, Howard is part of a tight-knit Syrian Jewish clan rooted in New York City. The film also deeply explores modern Jewish identity.
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It’s full of nuanced underlying commentary on consumerism, the downsides of international trade, addiction, family life and even basketball - former NBA star Kevin Garnett portrays himself in a slightly alternate universe in which he believes a rare stone that Howard lends him improves his play on the court. It’s a frantically paced freight train of suspense and emotion capped off with a bombshell ending. He pools money he makes from sales and under-the-table deals to bet impulsively on NBA games, and is in debt to the kinds of characters whom no one wants to be indebted to.įrom left, Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie and Adam Sandler on the set of “Uncut Gems.” (Wally McGrady/Courtesy of A24)īut there’s so much more going on here above and below the surface that words on a page won’t do the visceral experience of watching the film justice. Howard’s marriage (to Dinah, played with steely resolve by Idina Menzel) is in tatters after he has had an affair with a young employee in his shop, and he has a debilitating gambling problem. In “Uncut Gems,” Sandler plays Howard Ratner, an unscrupulous jeweler in New York’s extremely Jewish Diamond District. “Uncut Gems” is the sixth film by Josh and Benny Safdie, a pair of thirtysomething Jewish brothers who have earned serious acclaim for their gritty indie works that probe the New York City underworld - like “Heaven Knows What” (2014), about a homeless heroin addict, and “Good Time” (2017), which stars Robert Pattinson as a bank robber. His performance in “Uncut Gems” might just bring him an Oscar. Or perhaps, especially for Jews, his name brings to mind the lovable Hanukkah song. His foray into that world started around 2002 with Paul Thomas Anderson’s bizarre “Punch-Drunk Love,” and continued most recently in Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)” in 2017.īut the name Adam Sandler in pop culture still evokes that feeling one might experience after lighting a bag of poop on fire on your nemesis’ doorstep: I’m laughing at this, but I feel dirty doing so, and I shouldn’t be. Some film fans are aware that he’s also come into his own as a dramatic actor over the past couple of decades. She wasn’t exactly living under a rock: Sandler is obviously best known for his many potty humor comedies that pimply teenagers love and their parents hate. “Wow! So he does dramatic movies? Pulling a Steve Carell!”
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