WORDS BY NICK PINKERTON ILLUSTRATION BY LAURÈNE BOGLIOes, Adam Sandler is antic and aggro and utterly committed
as the diamond cluster hustler at the centre of Josh and
Benny Safdie’s Uncut Gems. And yes, playing such an
unapologetically mercenary, grifting, morally bankrupt character
as his Howard Ratner in that film has inevitably been framed as
a “departure” for Sandler. The Safdies, it should be said, are a
different breed from Sandler’s usual house directors, your Frank
Coracis and your Dennis Dugans and your Steven Brills. They came
up through the New York independent filmmaking ranks, making films
about irresponsible divorced parents (Daddy Longlegs), teenaged
heroin addicts (Heaven Knows What) and outer-borough small-timecrooks (Good Time), speed-of-thought movies that follow flustered
characters improvising in response to shifting circumstances, the
brothers’ frantic subject matter matched to an often abrasive or
adrenal style. Along with this, the boutique A24 imprimatur and
Martin Scorsese EP credit attach more than the usual amount of
cultural capital to Uncut Gems.What this means is that Uncut Gems will garner reviews praising Sandler
and, very likely, bemoaning the fact that he works so often beneath his
talents. Such has been the case ever since the first Serious Sandler
outing, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2002 Punch-Drunk Love, in whichY
In praise of a throughly modern
movie star: Adam Richard Sandler.
026 The Uncut Gems Issue