Uncut Gems

Saw Uncut Gems, a surprising film starring Adam Sandler as an adrenaline junkie gem dealer.  The central MacGuffin of the film is an uncut opal gem the size of a Nerf football.  He kicks off the movie by lending this to a basketball player who leaves his ring as collateral.  Sandler immediately pawns this collateral for money to place a sports bet.  On the way, he's ceaselessly jabbering away into his cellphone and dodging debtors.  He frantically lies to and evades and begs his business partners and mistresses and children in a mad panic attack of plate spinning.  The film is a sustained, mad rush to keep one step ahead of bankruptcy, divorce, and physical punishment.

The film is kind of the dark inverse of one of those "greed is good" kind of films.  I was reminded a lot of Wolf of Wall Street in how the character is always a few seconds away from destruction of one kind or another.  Unlike that film however, this guy is constantly and clearly in the throws of desperation.  He runs a tiny, hole-in-the-wall diamond shop and shows up with a black eye screaming into his phone that he's good for the money it's on its way any second now he'll have it right now in his hand goddamn it!  It's as if Michael Scott became involved in the mob.  It's not funny really, but more like one of those near-death videos.  He owns property in Long Island and Manhattan but his life really doesn't look so good.  He looks like he's going to keel over from a massive heart attack at any moment.

The film is mostly a character study of this man for whom the hustle and the chase has consumed his every waking moment.  There's some light, late-film critique of global capitalist exploitation (specifically in the gem trade) and I feel like that's the ideological heart of the film: that this man is the reality of raw, brutal capitalism.  It's a desperate struggle generated and perpetuated by giddy, desperate, slippery guys like this who have it all but don't have a moment to enjoy anything.

That said, mostly the film is a character study about this guy and what makes him tick.  He's a fascinating subject to watch jump and writhe for a while, but you get the sense that, like his motor-mouthed ducking of the collection men, this can go on forever, indefinitely drawn out and prolonged until you give in in disgust.