Review: The American Way of Winning in the Safdie Brothers’ ‘Uncut Gems’
“This is my fucking way. This is how I win.”
The thrill of a bet won. The anxiety of a debt due. Crawling out of one hole. Falling into another. Making one promise. Backtracking on another. The cyclical nature of getting ahead and somehow finding yourself right back where you started is everywhere, and perhaps representative of living under the thumb in America. But maybe, just maybe, if you make one good deal you can make it big. That if you use the good ol’fashion American way of lying, deceiving, and conning you too can be the one applying the pressure. For one Howard Rattner, this is how he wins.
In a world of diamond encrusted furbies, Kevin Garnet, and Ethiopian opals, directing duo Josh and Benny Safdie’s Uncut Gems is one head rush of a film. Largely taking place in the Diamond District of Midtown Manhattan, the deals brokered in and around Howard are skeezy, but done in the pursuit of the all mighty dollar. Greed runs rampant and the saying ‘money is the root of all evil’ couldn’t be more true than it is here. To lift himself out of his situation, Howard engages in a litany of high-roller bets that would produce cardiac arrest in the common person, but for him, this is normal. This is his thrill. His high. His grand plan that’ll put him on the path to extraordinary success. However, Howard is not immune to flying too close to the sun, and soon, the lush American Dream he sought, becomes the American Nightmare.
The seed of this particular episode in Howard’s life stems from the aforementioned opal. Smuggled in from Africa inside of a fish, this multicolored rock has the potential to be sold for millions . . . if he can find the right buyer. With a shady mob entourage breathing down his neck trying to collect what they are owed, Howard engages in interchanging transactions using his ‘golden goose’ rock to cover his bets, his debts, and his ass.
It is no moot point that the man playing Howard Rattner is Adam Sandler, the guy who in recent years garnered a bad rap for a bevy of . . . subpar films. But, he’s also the guy in Punch Drunk Love and The Meyerowitz Stories, so he’s not estranged from the dramatic side of acting. It is a rare occasion, yes, but not entirely unthinkable that he would play such a character. And what a character he plays. Howard is simply iconic. With an early 2000s wardrobe, ring adorned fingers, and a Gucci belt, he certainly looks the part of hustler, but it’s Sandler’s portrayal that gives him that uniquely New York personality where he shines. Wheeling and dealing, deal after deal, Sandler’s charm buys currency in pacifying debtees, often emitting equal parts confidence when things go his way and desperation when a deal is about to fall through.
Though he is constantly digging his own grave and deserves much of what he brought onto himself, Howard is chasing the same thing you and I are: the American Dream. Howard’s already got a lavish lifestyle, but capitalism-be-damned if Howard doesn’t want to make it big. The greed that drives America pushes him further and further into bigger and bigger grandeurs of payout, while at the same time that greed beats him down. To pull this off, Howard engages in a game of spinning plates. He makes one deal to pay off another. That new deal falls through so he makes another crazier one. That triggers another deal, and soon you have a cavalcade of poor decisions lining up to beat up on Howard. But just when you think he’s in the clear and everything is squared away, he does it again, and you cannot believe this guy hasn’t learned from the events of the last hour and a half. Then you realize something: this is Howard, and this is how he wins.
Playing it by the books in America won’t get you anywhere. To get that coveted American Dream, you need to take risks and break the rules because the guys at the top don’t play by them and neither will Howard. The Safdies’ put this crazy character at the heart of the most emblematic American city chasing the promise we are all sold on from birth, and in the process, commentate on the wishful thinking we all share. Most of us die chasing the American Dream. Much like the opal that entrances those that hold it, there is a fixation with this concept paired with the biting reality that it’s out of reach.
As thrilling and exciting as the events are, there’s a pitiful texture to Howard that doesn’t make him a complete degenerate, but rather someone we root for. We want Howard to win because if he does, then maybe we can too. After all, we’re all chasing that uncut gem, but maybe we’re not meant to have it.
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