Will you look at the guy (i.e., Josh Safdie) on the left? His eyes in particular and that Three Stooges Curly Joe nyuk-nyuk goofball expression? One glance tells you why Uncut Gems is the film that it is. One glance tells you Josh is emotionally and psychologically incapable of making a film that isn’t push … Read more
Uncut Gems is a full-barrelled, deep dive into the realm of a manic, crazy-fuck gambler (Adam Sandler), and yes, it “feels like being locked inside the pinwheeling brain of a lunatic for more than two hours,” as Peter Debruge wrote. And guess what? It’ll make your head explode and drive you fucking nuts. By the … Read more
Adam Sandler is completely immersed in the manic mode of an insatiable edge-junkie gambler in Josh and Benny Safdie‘s Uncut Gems. For this is a hyper, hammerhead experience that, unlike Karl Reisz and James Toback‘s The Gambler or Abel Ferrara‘s Bad Lieutenant, has zero interest in looking or reaching beyond the hustling mood-rush aspects of … Read more
In her 12.12 N.Y. Times review, Manohla Dargis calls Josh and Benny Safdie‘s Uncut Gems “fun if also wearying and at times annoying.” I know Manohla to a certain extent and I know what it’s like to to write for the Times, and one of the basic rules is “always project a reasonable and moderate … Read more
Jordan Ruimy has posted a list of the leading 21st Century American directors…you know, the ones with vision and chops and cojones to spare. Obviously defined as directors who broke through and became a brand during this century. Here are two lists — the ones that I really believe in are on top, alphabetized and … Read more
Three and a half months ago I reviewed a Kino Lorber Bluray of Marty Feldman’s In God We Tru$t (’80), an anti-religion, anti-corporate satire in which Richard Pryor played God. (Or more precisely “G.O.D.”). An In God We Trust Richard Pryor-with-white-Godbeard T-shirt was subsequently created by Elara.world, a normcore merch line from an outfit run … Read more
On last Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Quentin Tarantino explained one of his reasons for thinking about retiring. (According to this scenario he’ll make one more film and then hang it up.) He said he’d looked into the arcs of a couple of dozen major directors, and that generally the best years of a … Read more
Friendo: “I don’t know what Joe Popcorn will make of Marty Supreme (A24, 12.25) but I can tell you this: the critics can’t be trusted. Generally I mean but especially regarding this Josh Safdie puppy. “I tried to watch it last night, but I bailed after the bathtub fell through the roof and seriously harmed … Read more
The more I hated the hyper jackhammer insanity of Uncut Gems (’19), which wasn’t so much “directed” as mainlined by the crazy hypodermic Safdies, the more I fell in love with the memory of Karel Reisz and James Toback‘s The Gambler (’74) — a film that considers the gambling-junkie pathology in tragic-poetic terms. I can … Read more
Say what you will about Hollywood Elsewhere, but let no man dispute that (a) I am a Reality Fortress, and (b) I’m almost never a go-alonger when the critical community loses its collective shit mind over an auteurist favorite of a dubious caste. For when it comes to difficult films I am a slice-of-pepperoni-pizza kind … Read more
Hollywood Elsewhere is not, shall we say, the biggest fan of the Safdie brothers Uncut Gems, but I’m a rapt admirer of Adam Sandler‘s pinball-machine performance as an insane gambling junkie. In a post titled “Sandler’s Finest Performance,” I wrote that “within the realm that the Safdies have created, he’s completely authentic. We all know … Read more
HE’s 8.29.19 Telluride Film Festival review, and a 9.10.19 follow-up: