#208: Betting Men. Pt. 2 - Uncut Gems

The Next Picture Show

Filmspotting

Tv & Film, Film History, Film Reviews

4.6 • 858 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2020

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Though Josh and Benny Safdie are avowed admirers of John Cassavetes, the aggressive intensity of their new gambling drama UNCUT GEMS stands in stark contrast to Cassavetes’ more enigmatic, melancholic take on a similar sort of degenerate in 1976’s THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE. Nonetheless, the two films do share a lot beyond protagonists trying to rebound from some bad bets with bad people. After sharing our (sometimes visceral) reactions to the relentless tension of UNCUT GEMS, we get into some of those commonalities, including how both films approach gambling, death, and the intersection thereof, and their use of female characters as accessories to their male-centric worlds. Plus, Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your cinematic radar. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE, UNCUT GEMS, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. Works Cited: • "The Safdie Brothers' Full-Immersion Filmmaking," by Kelefa Sanneh (The New Yorker) Your Next Picture Show: • Keith: Robert Wise’s RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP • Scott: Todd Haynes’ DARK WATERS • Genevieve: MIKE BIRBIGLIA: THE NEW ONE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Twas the night before Christmas went all through the kitchen. Guests were happily sipping the
0:06.1	drinks that I'd mix them. With a selection of tonics from fever tree, everyone was given their
0:12.2	favourite G&T. It is, after all, the best time of the year that deserves special drinks,
0:19.2	not just wine or beer. So this holiday season, mix with the
0:23.7	best, with fever tree tonics for you and your guests. Please enjoy responsibly.
0:31.7	It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.
0:35.2	You believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?
0:41.9	We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.
0:49.6	Welcome back to the next picture show, a movie the week podcast devoted to a classic film on the way it shaped our thoughts on a recent release.
0:55.9	I'm Scott Tobias here again with...
0:57.7	Genevieve Kosky.
0:58.9	Keithips.
0:59.6	In our last episode, we followed a degenerate gambler who takes desperate measures to get himself out of Hock and the killing of a Chinese bookie. were talking about another screw-up in the same spot in Uncut Gems, the new film by Josh and
1:11.7	Benny Safty, the directors of Good Time and Heaven Knows What. If you're familiar with the
1:16.0	Safty brothers, you know they put a premium on intensity and hyperaggression, from the performances
1:21.3	to the soundtrack to the Grimy Street Realism, which recalls a different era in New York
1:26.0	filmmaking. Uncut Gems is by far their biggest
1:28.8	production to date, but their aesthetic hasn't changed a bit. Adam Sandler stars as Howard Ratner,
1:34.0	the proprietor of a jewelry store in New York's Diamond District in 2012. As the film opens,
1:39.2	he already owes money to many shady lenders around town, but he believes he's found the answer
1:43.7	to pull himself
1:44.3	out of debt. He's ordered an uncut opal from an Ethiopian mine that he believes to be worth
	...

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