BEFORE: Amid all the devastation, there's a glimmer of hope - it's not being well reported on, not as far as I can tell, but I did find an NPR article that described the fact that biotech companies are already searching for Covid-19 antibodies in the blood of people who have been exposed to the virus and have recovered. Collectively, we should know by now that this process has worked before on other viruses, like SARS, and unfortunately, even with this plan, it's going to take months to develop proper anti-viral strategies or anything close to a vaccine. But I'm left wondering why this process didn't start sooner, like if there were people in China who recovered from corona virus in December, couldn't the search through their blood have started in January instead of March? Maybe it was an access problem, or an inability to find the right healthy people in rural China? I don't know, you only need a few, I think, and they could have been flown to a lab in another country, right?
Anyway, I've given up on help coming from the President, who was reluctant for nearly a month to admit there even could possibly be a problem looming. That's always the best way to prepare, right? No, by all means, go play another round of golf while people are getting on planes in Asia and traveling all over the world spreading an illness. What could possibly go wrong with that? So now I'm hoping that science will come through, now I don't think any medicine should be distributed before it's properly tested, but maybe somebody can think of a way to shorten the testing and approval process from months down to weeks, while people are dying in such large numbers. Just my feeling that this is the way to go. Money sent to citizens and small business is no doubt appreciated, but I think money will accomplish the most if it's sent to the proper biotech firm. While we're debating whether every crisis is also an opportunity, there's an opportunity here for somebody to become the next Jonas Salk or Alexander Fleming, and come up with the thing (anti-virus, vaccine, immune system booster) that's going to take down this invisible enemy. That's what I hope for every morning now when I turn on the news.
Adam Sandler carries over from "Murder Mystery".
THE PLOT: With his debts mounting and angry collectors closing in, a fast-talking New York City jeweler risks everything in hope of staying afloat and alive.
AFTER: Well, leading out of "Murder Mystery", I think my choices were this film or "Dumplin'" with Jennifer Aniston, I think I made the right call. People were buzzing about this one around Oscar time, mostly about the fact that it got zero nominations, though Sandler won the Best Male Lead from the Independent Spirit Awards. A co-worker was disappointed that he didn't get an Oscar nom, but hey, comedy people always have an uphill battle where the Oscars are concerned. (No Golden Globe nominations, either? That seems a little shocking.).
Two problems where Adam Sandler is concered - first off, he's always going to be seen as Billy Madison, or Happy Gilmore, or that guy from "The Waterboy", no matter how old he ever gets to be. He did that to himself, he did silly characters for so long, a logical continuation of his work on SNL, of course, and nowadays we find Will Ferrell in the same boat. After "Anchorman" and "Elf", do you think Ferrell will ever be nominated for an Oscar? Very doubtful. Steve Carell got an Oscar nom, but he's put in the time doing the transition to serious work in films like "Foxcatcher". Sandler's been in the world of silly things for far too long to be considered. Don't get me wrong, I admire the attempt. But he's played silly characters for so long, I honestly couldn't tell if he was being serious as Howard Ratner, or if he was just playing another silly character, falling back on Jewish mannerisms and speech patterns.
And that's connected to the second problem - at every moment, in every scene, I was never able to forget that I was looking at Adam Sandler. I've spent too much time watching his movies where he acts that same goofy, clueless way, and in some ways Howard Ratner is just an extension of that, which he's fallen back on so many times before. Good acting involves making the audience forget, somehow, or at least not be constantly aware, that someone is an actor playing a part, reading written lines. And because I was aware at every moment I was watching Adam Sandler, because he was so darn Adam Sandler-y, that I was also aware of him being an actor playing a part. OK, maybe only 99% of the time.
But what really works here is the depiction of the gambler mentality, that feeling that somehow there's a magical combination of moving money (and in this case objects too) around that will produce the ultimate pay-off, the one that will allow him to never need to gamble any more. Only he won't stop, because he's addicted, he's never going to stop, he's only going to keep going until he's super-rich or flat broke. The question then becomes, where this film is concerned, which one is he going to be?
When we first meet Howard, it's clear that he's drawn to being on the edge, he must sort of get off on the danger of it all, because he walks around town placing bets, even though he knows (?) he's being followed and watched by people he owes money to. It turns out that loan sharks you owe money to don't really like it when they see you placing a bet with another bookie - because if you have any money, you should be using it to pay down your debt with them, not making another, larger bet, to maybe get yourself out of the hole. Which is a great metaphor, if you think about it, we say "being in the hole" when you're in debt. If you're standing in a hole, and you keep digging, you're only going to make the hole deeper, right? Keep that up long enough and you're just not going to be able to climb out. You should be looking for ways to put more dirt back in the hole, even if you fill it up just a little at a time, you're adding dirt that you can eventually stand on to get out.
But Howard keeps on digging - he's made some arrangement to get an uncut opal delivered from Africa, and instead of keeping it hidden, he shows it to a high-profile sports client who wants to borrow it for luck, leaving his championship ring as collateral. Howard turns right around and pawns that ring (which, umm, is not even his) to get more money to make a bet. Every logical piece of my mind was screaming for him not to do this, but it's who he is. Of course, if he loses that bet, then he doesn't have the money to get the ring back, then he can't get his opal back. So naturally I thought I knew which way the film was heading, but then the deals become so much more complicated.
Generally speaking, Howard does many different things that conventional wisdom says not to do. It's not really a smart idea to have both a wife and a girlfriend, but if you look around, some people do end up doing that in their lives. It's not really a good idea to have that girlfriend working in your jewelry shop, or living in the apartment that you maintain in Manhattan in case you work late, but again, Howard seems drawn to the danger of it all somehow. That creates a sense of building dread throughout the film - which eventually created an edge-of-my-seat reaction, similar to the one in "Marriage Story" during the part when (that thing) happens.
There's no connection to the current pandemic, but the film is all about stress and debt, so in that sense it couldn't be more timely. I started describing the storyline to my wife today, and she just said, "No way am I watching that, life is stressful enough as it is right now!"
Several climactic scenes were filmed at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, a place I've been a few times. They name-check the casino, of course, and a character travels there by helicopter to place a bet. Great advertising for the casino, but factually incorrect, they don't have a sports book desk there, like the Atlantic City casinos do, just slots and table games. There's a high-roller character in these scenes who nearly steals the whole movie with his smarmy charm - this guy looks and FEELS like someone who would take a helicopter to a casino, rent out the penthouse suite and then part with some serious cash playing poker or blackjack. The actor's backstory is that he worked in the garment district in New York during the 1970's and 80's, designed dresses for Vanna White to wear on "Wheel of Fortune", and after retiring, happened to meet the directors of "Uncut Gems" at the famous Pete's Tavern in NYC's Greenwich Village. Talk about a natural - unlike Adam Sandler, I believed 100% that this guy was his character. He came out of nowhere, may never have another part this great in another movie, but who cares? He sure doesn't, and he looked like he was having fun.
Also starring Lakeith Stanfield (last seen in "Sorry to Bother You"), Julia Fox, Kevin Garnett, Idina Menzel (last seen in "Rent"), Eric Bogosian (last seen in "Rebel in the Rye"), Judd Hirsch (last seen in "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)"), Keith Williams Richards, Jonathan Aranbayev, Noa Fisher, The Weeknd (last seen in "Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall"), Mike Francesca, Jacob Igielski, Wayne Diamond, Josh Ostrovsky (last seen in "Nerve"), Ronald Greenberg, Marshall Greenberg, Hailey Gates (last seen in "Ricki and the Flash"), Benjy Kleiner, Tommy Kominik, Louis Anthony Arias, Keren Shemel, Sahar Bibiyan, Lana Levitin, with cameos from Pom Klementieff (last seen in "Avengers: Endgame"), John Amos, Ca$h Out, Trinidad James, and the voices of Natasha Lyonne (last seen in "Girlfriend's Day"), Tilda Swinton (also last seen in "Avengers: Endgame"), Doc Rivers.
RATING: 7 out of 10 fake Rolex watches
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