By Onyx Staff | 12/21/2019

Uncut Gems is a full tilt thriller orbiting an ill-starred jeweler in the Diamond District of 47th Street in New York City.

Gems is a decade in the making passion project for the New York City filmmakers, Josh and Benny Safdie. The Safdies have been making a vivid name for themselves with propulsive, tension ratcheting stories over the last decade. Their previous work includes Good Time (2017), Heaven Knows What (2014) and Daddy Longlegs (2009).

Similar to the confusion of moviegoers around Robert Pattinson’s starring role in Good Time; the presence of Adam Sandler as the lead in Uncut Gems may be a head scratcher. I understand. Adam Sandler and hard-hitting indie? For the curious and the skeptical I would highlight Sandler’s performances in P.T. Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories as road signs pointing to the dramatic heft he brings to this mercurial experience.

The Safdie Brothers are cinephiles. Cinema is encoded in their DNA. They light up watching, talking and making movies. They represent a scion of daring independent filmmaking. The Safdies, along with NYC based distribution and production company A24, are carving out a vein for unique and meaningful projects.

I am willing to bet Uncut Gems will be your most heart-racing, roller coaster movie going experience of the year.

-zsa’lai, Onyx Staff Member