Uncut Gems 4K 2019 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Year 2012. Howard Ratner owns a small jewelry store in New York. As a big NBA fan, he cannot imagine life without betting on games, so he is deep in debt and is constantly hiding from creditors. One day, an accomplice brings him to the store of the leading player of the Boston Celtics, Kevin Garnett, and at the same time a parcel arrives from Ethiopia with rare uncut black opals. Enchanted by their brilliance, Garnett literally sticks to this piece of rock, asks to borrow it for a few days and leaves a champion ring as a pledge. Howard immediately lays down the ring in a nearby pawnshop and bets on the Celtics game for the proceeds.

Review 4K Movie

If you believe the Western film press, then festival goers compared Ben and Joshua Safdie's "Uncut Jewels" to a breakthrough. This would have been the case if the brothers hadn't released another breakthrough a few years ago - Good Time. But it is quite possible to call "Jewels" a disruptive picture, because following Good Time, this film was shot on the same wavelength - the script here is strange, abnormal, noisy, even at times unpleasant, but so attractive! If "Jewels" leaves the viewer shocked, disoriented and a little insane after viewing, then this is what the creators clearly wanted. And yet the brothers' signature style, combining humor and dark psychological thriller, has truly unleashed Adam Sandler's talent since the days of Knockdown Love.

The main character, Howard Ratner, is the manager of a jewelry store in a special, "diamond" district of New York. This is a traditionally Jewish quarter, and everyone seems to know Howard there: they love him, but they do not respect him at all. Howard is a reckless adulterer, gambling addict and petty crook. Moreover, he owes a lot of money to the local thugs. However, Howard wouldn’t be Howard if he hadn’t come up with a plan: first, he must soon bring a pretentious and rare gem, and second, an athlete burdock appeared on the horizon.

While Good Time was set in a linear chronicle of one turbulent night, Jewels Uncut gallops for days in Howard's life. Everything is deliberately made fast and chaotic. From the point of view of the script, this is served quite well: there is no need to wait for a respite between the endlessly replacing events, and this is almost a miracle in the narrative. Howard plunges into trouble after trouble, and all circumstances unfold surprisingly vigorously. It seems that the directors in some way refer to the dirty and frankly insane environment, which was praised by Martin Scorsese in the 70s, and it is not for nothing that this famous filmmaker accepted the post of executive producer of Jewels. At the same time, the Safdie brothers do not copy and do not mindlessly refer to those epoch-making works of Scorsese, but confidently expand all the antiheroes of their film.

Much of the Jewels plot relies on the exploration of personality at the center of the story. Howard has no moral problems, he easily deceives, cheats, manipulates (including his own family), ignores his wife and children. At the same time, without even delving into the psychoanalysis of this person, it is clear that the person lives in a constant state of panic: there are several worthy scenes that clearly illustrate this. This allows some straight scenes to be perceived from a new angle.

The main charm of Jewels is casting. In addition to Sandler and others, most of the cast of the films look like real people - in general, the characters are easily recognizable as the inhabitants of the big city. Realism does not harm the film at all, and even Sandler, who in other (often frankly frivolous films) looks like the fifth wheel, is appropriate here: he is moderately eccentric and it is difficult to resist his charisma.

"Uncut Jewels" is, first of all, a challenge to perception: there is a very unsympathetic protagonist, difficult camera work, a mountain of profanity and an inappropriate soundtrack. However, all these elements, suddenly, go well together and even harmonize with each other: this is a real "freak show", but in a good way. It seems that there is a special sophistication in this, when the main character of the film is his own antagonist: firstly, it is obvious that Ratner is a victim of his own vices and his own worst enemy, and, secondly, let's be honest, but Ratner's numerous enemies are also his victims. As a bottom line, Jewels Uncut will not be suitable for lovers of simple cinema, although the moral compass of the story seems to be uncomplicated. This is the very case when it is not the life lesson that the hero has learned that is important, but the path to it: Howard Ratner, like the viewer, lives in this particular story not so much for the sake of the result as for the sake of adventure and the feeling that everything can change at any moment. And it has changed, damn it!