History Film / UncutGems

Howard Ratner (Sandler) is a charismatic New York Diamond District jeweler and [[TheGamblingAddict gambling addict]] whose clients are some of the most powerful and wealthiest people in the city. When a potential transaction of his goes awry and an old, persistent LoanShark of his starts swimming straight for him, Howard must make a series of precarious high-stake acts as everything from his family, his creditors, and his clients start to catch up to him in more ways than one.

Sandler stars as Howard Ratner, a charismatic New York Diamond District jeweler and [[TheGamblingAddict gambling addict]] whose clients are some of the most powerful and wealthiest people in the city. When a potential transaction of his goes awry and an old, persistent LoanShark of his starts swimming straight for him, Howard must make a series of precarious high-stake acts as everything from his family, his creditors, and his clients start to catch up to him in more ways than one.

''Uncut Gems'' is a 2019 crime-thriller film directed by [[Creator/TheSafdieBrothers Josh and Benny Safdie]] and starring Creator/AdamSandler. It was released on December 13th, 2019 by distributor Creator/{{A24}} in the United States and distributed worldwide by Creator/{{Netflix}} on January 30th, 2020.

The rest of the cast includes Creator/LakeithStanfield, Julia Fox, Creator/IdinaMenzel, Creator/EricBogosian, Music/TheWeeknd, and Kevin Garnett. The film, which was in the works by the Safdies for more than [[TroubledProduction ten years]], primarily due to the lack of financial backing and an attached star, was written by Ronald Bronstein and the Safdies. The cinematography was done by Darius Khondji, and the music was composed by Daniel Lopatin, AKA Music/OneohtrixPointNever.

* CringeComedy: Some of Howard's escapades are so desperate and pathetic that they devolve into this, such as the scene where he's forced to ask his neighbors if his son can use the bathroom in their apartment because he doesn't want his son to see the apartment he uses to have sex with Julia.

** Phil and Niko [[spoiler:kill Howard not knowing that Julia ultimately claimed the millions for the bet, and is away from their hands. As long as she doesn't stick around anything that has to do with Howard, she's scot-free and filthy rich. It is also heavily implied that they might be locked inside the shop and even if they understand how to fix the door, it will slow them down enough for police to arrive. Not only that but they shot and killed Howard and Arno in front of a security camera and also stole all the stuff in the store with their bare hands, thus in turn leaving their fingerprints over the crime scene. Even if they escape before the cops arrive, it wont be hard for the cops to identify and find them.]]

* FootDraggingDivorcee: Dinah loathes her husband, and wants to get divorced as soon as possible. Howard, on the other hand, isn't so sure, and does his best to delay the inevitable.

->''"This is me. This is how I win."''

* BettyAndVeronica: Howard is the Archie to his wife, Dinah (the Betty), who had his kids and a big family, as well as being friendly to fellow parents at her kids' school, but he is cheating on her with Julia, the loudmouthed, crass, and apparently gold-digging Veronica. ''But''...

* ClusterFBomb: This is a deeply profane movie. Even Howard's kids drop a few F-bombs. In fact, it's so profane that it's currently ranked fourth in the "most F-bombs dropped in a movie" category, with 560 uses according to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh-R7fTLqi4 this video]] published by Creator/{{Netflix}} themselves.

* RealityEnsues [[spoiler:Howard wins the big bet on the Celtics in the climax of the movie. He then lets in Phil (who was threatening Howard after being locked in his door for several hours) who then proceeds to shoot and kill Howard. A violent hotheaded mobster who has been constantly butting heads with Howard during the whole movie, was not going to be okay with being locked in the room for over three hours no matter how much money Howard just made. No amount of money is worth the shit Howard pulls on them.]]

* FamousLastWords:
** "I knew it, Arno!" [[spoiler: Howard, a split second before Phil shoots him in the face]]
** "I want out of here! Let me out!" [[spoiler: Arno]]

* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler: Howard gets shot in the head and killed instantly in the midst of probably the biggest gambling high of his entire life, and even as a corpse he has a contented smile on his face. It's likely he got killed before he could even register that there was a gun in his face]].

* {{Anticlimax}}: [[spoiler:Howard is unceremoniously shot in the face mere moments after winning the biggest bet in his life.]]

* FamousLastWords: "I knew it, Arno!" [[spoiler: Howard, a split second before Phil shoots him in the face]]

** Makes some sense if you've studied organic chemistry (one of the foundations of a jeweler's education) and know that the basic structure of humans, diamonds, and stars are all composed of carbon.

* AllJewsAreAshkenazi: Howard notes that, in spite of being Jewish, he had no idea about the existence of Ethiopian Jews, many of whom are trapped in Africa mining gems. In reality, any observant Jew would be aware of Ethiopian Jews, though not necessarily the current status of those still in Africa.
** Zig-zagged in that Howard is subtly implied to be a Bukharian Jew himself.

** Phil and Niko [[spoiler:kill Howard not knowing that Julia ultimately claimed the millions for the bet, and is away from their hands. As long as she doesn't stick around anything that has to do with Howard, she's scot-free and filthy rich. It is also heavily implied that they might be locked inside the shop and even if they understand how to fix the door, it will slow them down enough for police to arrive.]]

* RealityEnsues [[spoiler:Howard wins the big bet on the Celtics in the climax of the movie. He then lets in Phil (who was threatening Howard after being locked in his door for several hours) who then proceeds to shoot and kill Howard. A violent hotheaded mobster who has been constantly butted heads with Howard during the whole movie, was not going to be okay with being locked in the room for over three hours no matter how much money Howard just made. No amount of money is worth the shit Howard pulls on them.]]

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Howard's ultimate fate.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Howard's gamble paid off big, but Phil still shoots Howard in the face, and the movie ends with him bleeding out on the floor of his shop. The only possible silver lining is that his family is safe (albeit now without a father), and Julia made off with millions (which isn't a particularly great thing in and of itself, seeing as she's [[TheDitz a stupid]], [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish, materialistic moron]]). That being said, Howard ''did'' die at probably the happiest moment of his life, which might be all that matters to him by that point]].

* RuderAndCruder: While Creator/AdamSandler has been involved with ''very few'' works that could be called "squeaky clean", ''Uncut Gems'', his most profanity-laced film, contains 560 uses of the F-word, the seventh-highest usage in film history. And it's not a comedy.

* RuderAndCruder: While Creator/AdamSandler has been involved with ''very few'' works that could be called "squeaky clean", ''Uncut Gems'', his most profanity-laced film, contains 408 uses of the F-word, the seventh-highest usage in film history. And it's not a comedy.

* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Both Howard and Arno’s demises qualify. Howard gets murdered by Phil after winning the biggest bet in his life. While he was a self-serving gambler, Arno is shown to be appalled at his death, with himself getting murdered by Phil after confronting him on it.]]

** Phil and Niko [[spoiler:kill Howard not knowing that Julia ultimately claimed the millions for the bet, and is away from their hands. As long as she doesn't stick around anything that has to do with Howard, she's scot-free and filthy rich.]]

The rest of the cast includes Creator/LakeithStanfield, Creator/JuliaFox, Creator/IdinaMenzel, Creator/EricBogosian, Music/TheWeeknd, and Sports/KevinGarnett. The film, which was in the works by the Safdies for more than [[TroubledProduction ten years]], primarily due to the lack of financial backing and an attached star, was written by Ronald Bronstein and the Safdies. The cinematography was done by Darius Khondji, and the music was composed by Daniel Lopatin, AKA Music/OneohtrixPointNever.

* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Howard gets murdered by Phil after winning the biggest bet in his life. While he was a self-serving gambler, Arno is shown to be appalled at his death, with himself getting murdered by Phil after confronting him on it.]]

* FamousLastWords: "I knew it, Arno!" [[spoiler: Howard, a split second before Howard shoots him in the face]]

* BodyguardBetrayal: [[spoiler: Phil ends up murdering his boss, Arno.]]

* ClusterFBomb: This is a deeply profane movie. Even Howard's kids drop a few F-bombs. In fact, it's so profane that it's currently ranked fourth in the "most F-bombs dropped in a movie" category, with 506 uses.

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Howard cheats on his wife with Julia, a young assistant at his jewelry store; he pays rent for her apartment.
** Howard catches Julia in the bathroom with The Weeknd. Julia maintains they were just doing coke, but Howard is convinced that she was cheating on him. [[spoiler: She makes it up to him by having his name tattooed on her ass.]]

* ClusterFBomb: This is a deeply profane movie. Even Howard's kids drop a few F-bombs. In fact, it's so profane that it's currently ranked fourth in the "most F-bombs dropped in a movie" category, with 560 uses.