Uncut Gems


Uncut Gems is a 2019 American crime thriller film directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, who wrote the screenplay with Ronald Bronstein. The film stars Adam Sandler, LaKeith Stanfield, Julia Fox, Kevin Garnett, Idina Menzel, and Eric Bogosian. The film tells the story of Howard Ratner, a Jewish-American jeweler and gambling addict who must retrieve an expensive gem he purchased in order to pay off his debt. Filming took place from September to November 2018. The original score is by Daniel Lopatin.
The film premiered at the 46th Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2019. A24 gave it a limited release in the United States on December 13 and a wide release on December 25. Uncut Gems was a box-office success and received acclaim, especially for Sandler's against-type performance, which several reviewers called the best of his career. The film was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2019.

Plot

In spring 2012, Howard Ratner runs the KMH jewelry store in New York City's Diamond District. His job pays well, but his habits are very expensive. He has a gambling addiction, a fancy house on Long Island with his wife Dinah and children, and pied-à-terre in Manhattan for his mistress, Julia. Dinah is fed up with his antics and plans to divorce him after Passover.
Howard has borrowed $100,000 from his brother-in-law Arno, a loan shark, and used the money to purchase and smuggle a 600-carat black opal from Ethiopia's Welo mine. After the repayment deadline passes, Arno sends two hired goons, Phil and Nico, to accost Howard at his shop. Howard asks to extend the deadline to Monday, when the opal is set for auction, as Howard believes it will sell for as much as $1 million.
Howard's business associate Demany brings Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett to KMH. Garnett becomes enamored of the opal and believes it will bring him good luck at his playoff game that night. Howard refuses to sell Garnett the opal, as it is set for auction, but agrees to lend it to him for the night. Garnett gives Howard his 2008 NBA Championship ring as collateral. Howard pawns the ring to place a six-way parlay worth $600,000, betting that Garnett will play well that night. Garnett dominates, but angers Howard by neglecting to return the opal before leaving New York. Howard travels to Philadelphia with Demany to retrieve it from Garnett, but once they arrive at the sports facility Demany ditches him.
That evening, Howard is ambushed at his daughter's school play by Arno, Phil, and Nico. Arno tells him that he stopped Howard's bet and lectures him about his reckless spending. The loan sharks strip Howard naked and lock him in the trunk of his car, forcing him to call Dinah for help.
Howard meets Demany at a nightclub party hosted by R&B singer the Weeknd to retrieve the opal, only to find that Garnett still has it. Howard catches Julia with the Weeknd in the club bathroom and believes they were having sex. He fights the Weeknd and orders Julia to leave his apartment.
Garnett returns the opal to Howard and resolves to buy it at the upcoming auction. He asks for his ring back, but Howard lies that he left it at home. Later, Howard berates Demany for allowing Garnett to keep the opal so long. Demany then discovers that Howard has been giving away watches that Demany had been keeping in his safe. Enraged, he trashes Howard's office and poisons his fish tank. After an awkward Passover family dinner, Howard pleads with Dinah to give their marriage another chance. On the drive home, Howard stops at the apartment. His son, accompanying him, finds out from another tenant that a woman had been staying there.
The auction house shocks Howard by valuing the opal at just $155,000. To salvage the situation, Howard recruits his father-in-law, Gooey, to drive up the price by bidding. Gooey bids up Garnett to $180,000, but Howard pushes for more, and Garnett backs out. Enraged by Howard's bungling, Arno, Phil, and Nico assault him outside the auction house.
Howard returns to KMH bloody and in tears. Julia comforts him and they reconcile. He retrieves Garnett's ring from the pawn shop but is late, and forced to exchange his prized 1973 Knicks ring for it. Garnett visits KMH to pick up the ring and confront Howard about his auction scheme. Howard explains that he has an emotional need to chase the next big score. He is already planning his next big bet, and uses the confrontation to motivate Garnett to dominate the next game.
Garnett pays Howard $165,000 for the opal and Howard gambles the money on a Garnett-focused parlay instead of clearing his debts. Arno, Phil, and Nico visit KMH to threaten Howard. Howard recruits Julia to sneak out the cash and place the bet at the Mohegan Sun casino. He then traps the loan sharks inside the store's security doors and forces them to watch the game with him. They send their associates to track down Julia. Howard calls Dinah and invents a story about a gas leak to convince her and the children to leave the house; Dinah suspects something is wrong.
Garnett comes through again, earning Howard $1.2 million. Ecstatic, Howard frees Arno and his men, but is abruptly shot and killed by an enraged Phil, to Arno's shock. When Arno attempts to escape, Phil murders him and begins looting the store with Nico. Julia collects Howard's winnings and evades Arno's men with the help of a wealthy Mohegan Sun guest named Wayne. Dinah calls the police.

Cast

, Ca$h Out, and Trinidad James appear as themselves, Amos as Howard's neighbor and the others as acquaintances of Demany. Tilda Swinton and Natasha Lyonne have vocal cameos as the auction manager and a Celtics staff member, respectively. Celtics head coach Doc Rivers wrote and delivered a voiceover pep talk for the film. Pom Klementieff has a brief cameo as Lexis, a friend of Julia who greets Howard outside his Manhattan apartment during the opening credits.

Production

Concept and screenplay

came up with the idea of a Diamond District movie in 2009, influenced by their father's stories of working as a diamond salesman. Co-writer Ronald Bronstein came from a similar background, as his father worked in the Garment District. Their shared Jewish upbringing was essential to their crafting of the film. The Safdies have said that "the film is about belonging" but also "about cheating God". Slate called the film "the most Jewish movie in years". IndieWires David Ehrlich wrote, "Uncut Gems is the movie that Jews were promised in the Torah. Uncut Gems is gonna be the theme of my son's bar mitzvah."
When creating the character of Howard, the Safdies were heavily influenced by Jewish humor and actors from the 20th century. Howard has been likened to a schlimazel, a stock Jewish humor character marked by his poor luck, or a schlemiel, marked by his ineptitude and clumsiness, though The Village Voices J. Hoberman argued that Howard's shamelessness precludes the latter comparison. The Safdies said they wanted Howard to encompass Jewish stereotypes proudly and treat them as a "superpower", saying, "it was very important to make Howard a strong guy who doesn't back down." Josh Safdie said that one of his goals was to prove "that people can look beyond a flaw.... That's why the movie is called 'Uncut Gems.' Uncut gems are rough things that are considered ugly by most people, but when you scope them out and get underneath you can find the beauty and value in them."
The Jewish concept of "learning through suffering" was also important for the character. In a round-table hosted by Jewish Currents, David Klion said, "the overriding effect that the movie seems to have on virtually everyone who sees it is one of intense anxiety, which feels like a very Jewish theme." Arielle Angel wrote that Howard embodies a combination of "insecurity plus power" and that his Jewishness makes him "white enough to have access" while leaving him "with this immigrant hustler mentality".
The Safdies designed Howard to channel Jewish "stereotypes that were forced onto us in the Middle Ages, when... our only way of accruing status as an individual, as a person who was considered a human being, was through material consumption." Production designer Sam Lisenco worked with the Safdies to depict a new-money striver who, despite his wealth, retains the trashy tastes of his childhood. Lisenco noted that Howard buys expensive but dated items he could not afford when he was younger, like the Sony Trinitron television in his Manhattan apartment, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and large fish tanks. The Ringer's Katie Baker called the overall effect "a study in tacky midtownish entropy".

Development

In May 2016, it was announced that the Safdies would direct the film from a screenplay they wrote with Bronstein, and that the Safdies' company Elara Pictures and RT Features would produce, with Emma Tillinger Koskoff and Martin Scorsese as executive producers. In May 2017, the Safdies announced that Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, and Sebastian Bear-McClard would produce the film, and A24 would distribute it. Netflix acquired the international distribution rights.

Casting

The Safdies initially approached Adam Sandler to star in 2010 and 2015, but his manager rejected the script. Once Scorsese agreed to executive produce the film, actors started taking the film more seriously. Jonah Hill was cast as Howard in May 2017, and the Safdies tried to rewrite the character to be younger, but Hill dropped out due to scheduling problems and chose to direct Mid90s. In April 2018, Sandler agreed to play Howard after watching the Safdies' film Good Time. Other actors considered for the role included Sacha Baron Cohen, Harvey Keitel, and James Caan.
Eric Bogosian, Judd Hirsch, Lakeith Stanfield, and Idina Menzel joined the project in August and September 2018. Tom Sizemore, Jerry Ferrara, John David Washington, and Isla Fisher read for those parts at a table-read during development. Three hundred actresses auditioned for the role of Julia, and the names of Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, and Kim Kardashian were thrown around; but the role eventually went to Julia Fox. Riley Keough also read for the part at a table-read during development.
For the role of the basketball player, Kevin Garnett was cast in September 2018. Kobe Bryant, Amar'e Stoudemire, and Joel Embiid were also considered. The Safdies originally wrote the part with Bryant in mind, and planned to focus on the day that Bryant broke the Madison Square Garden single-game scoring record, but Bryant's agent said Bryant was interested only in directing. The Safdies were drawn to Stoudemire due to his joint black and Jewish heritage, as well as his years with the New York Knicks, the Safdies' favorite team. But Stoudemire refused to shave his head to mirror his Knicks-era look. Embiid initially agreed to join the film, but was forced to drop out when the Safdies moved filming to the basketball season. The Safdies began to look at retired players and settled on Garnett, even though Garnett's Celtics and the Knicks have a historic rivalry.
In October 2018, it was revealed that the Weeknd, Trinidad James, and Pom Klementieff had joined the cast. The Weeknd specifically requested to play the role as an egotistical punk, saying that that was how he treated people in 2012. Klementieff's scenes, apart from a brief cameo during the opening credits, were cut from the film.