Uncut Gems
Short description
Uncut Gems centers on Howard Ratner, a fast-talking jewelry dealer in New York's Diamond District who supplies wealthy and famous clients while juggling mounting debts and the collectors chasing him. His hopes of clearing what he owes rest on a rare black opal he has acquired and plans to sell at auction. When his associate Demany brings basketball star Kevin Garnett into the shop, Garnett insists on holding onto the stone as a good-luck charm for an important game, setting off a chain of risky decisions. Howard's efforts to keep his business, his family and his creditors in balance grow increasingly precarious.
The film was directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, who wrote the screenplay with Ronald Bronstein. It followed Good Time (2017) in their filmography. Adam Sandler leads the cast as Howard, with LaKeith Stanfield as Demany, Julia Fox as Julia De Flore, Kevin Garnett as himself, Idina Menzel as Dinah Ratner and Eric Bogosian as Arno Moradian. Martin Scorsese directed it as the thirty-fourth of thirty-eight films in his directing career, after Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019) and before Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).
Made for a budget of about 19 million USD, the film took roughly 50 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.4/10 from 353,000 votes and on TMDB 7.2/10 from 5,577 votes, while its critics' rating stands at 8.4/10 from 351 reviews, higher than either audience score.
What's left behind the scenes
- Adam Sandler's character's house is the same one that served as Freddie Mercury's home during the filming of "Bohemian Rhapsody".
- After watching the drama "Uncut Gems", Adam Sandler’s wife read the script for this film and convinced him to accept the role.
- The work of photographers Danny Sanchez and Eduard Gyubelin is shown at the beginning and end of the film (shots with opal).
- Initially, the Safdie brothers wanted to film this movie even before the 2017 crime drama 'Good Time', but these plans were hampered by funding difficulties. Shortly thereafter, Robert Pattinson, whom they didn't know, contacted them and told them he had seen a picture of actress Ariel Holmes from their 2014 film 'Heaven Knows What' on the internet. After a personal meeting with Pattinson, the Safdie brothers began writing the screenplay for 'Good Time' with this actor in mind. The film premiered in Cannes, was successful, and the brothers began receiving calls from Hollywood with offers to film a superhero action movie, but the brothers rejected all these offers and instead found funding to film 'Uncut Gems'.
- The role of Yussi is played by a true jeweler, Maksud Agajani, who was involved in a scandal with rapper 6ix9ine in 2018 over a $25,000 bracelet, which, according to him, the performer never paid for.
- To elicit natural reactions from the actors to Kevin Garnett accidentally breaking a jewelry store window, the Safdie brothers rigged the glass with a small charge so that it would shatter at the right moment. The actors were unaware of when this would happen, resulting in genuine reactions.
- The character Arno (Eric Bogosian) is named after Soviet composer Arno Babajanyan.
- For the role, Adam Sandler wore false teeth and glued a fake mole onto his right cheek.
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