Review of Uncut Gems (2019) by Movieturtle — 30 Dec 2019

From the opening sequence and giant red herring of a first shot of our protagonist to the closing fade this movie is very much like our main man Howard, talks loudly but has no substance whatsoever.

The movie follows a jewelry dealer Howard Ratner in an exploration of his life as he continues to wreck it with his own destructive and vice-driven actions. He is constantly running afoul of people that has borrowed money from and lost when betting on various basketball games. This comes up so many times that it really drives home the point that he's running out of places to go and eventually starts doing this to his own family and with more dangerous loan sharks that start to bite back now that they realize he's not paying people back Beyond the gambling addiction and theft, we get some insight into his ruined marriage with 3 kids while he's living in an apartment with his side girl. We even get a gross scene of their sexting and cut-to-black on them having sex.

Now Howard himself is a loud-mouthed arrogant pushy con-man who can't seem to con anyone and just comes across as a parody of every terrible reality show bratt in the last decade, but without any charisma at all.

There is no sympathy for this character and no other characters to sympathize with. There is no adversity for him to overcome as it all originates from his own poor actions.

The ending even seems fitting. He gets lucky enough to win big and it just isn't big enough to matter.

Seeing other reviews of this have people talking about anxiety inducing masterpiece. I didn't feel anxious at any point and don't think I felt anything beyond disgust this entire movie. I honestly feel like I should have walked out and would have been better off having just skipped this one.