Uncut Gems (2019)

I don't think I've ever gripped an armrest quite so hard watching a film. Uncut Gems is genuinely, viscerally stressful in a way that very few films manage, and I mean that as high praise. From the first frame to the last, it puts you inside the skull of a man who is perpetually one bad decision away from catastrophe, and it never, ever lets up. You leave it feeling like you've run a marathon you didn't sign up for.

The big talking point has to be Adam Sandler. Look, I'll be honest: I've seen him coast through plenty of films over the years, and I've largely made peace with that. But here he's doing something completely different, something that reminded me of Al Pacino in his prime. There's that same manic, coiled energy, the sense that this man's brain is running at three times the speed of everyone around him, that he's charming and infuriating and magnetic all at once. It's a genuinely brilliant performance. Sandler makes you feel the thrill his character gets from the chaos, even as you're screaming at the screen for him to just stop and breathe for a second. The whole cast backs him up brilliantly too, nobody's phoning it in.

So why not five stars? Honestly, it comes down to the writing, which I think gets a little erratic in places. I understand what the Safdie brothers are going for. They want to paint a portrait of a man who can't help himself, who keeps spinning new plates even as the old ones are smashing on the floor around him. That frantic, overlapping structure is the point. But there are a few threads woven in that feel like overkill rather than texture. The Weeknd's involvement, for instance, adds to the noise but not necessarily to the story. It feels like one angle too many in a film that's already juggling plenty.

The trouble with piling on so many subplots is that it sometimes robs Sandler of the space he needs to actually act. Instead of moments where you can watch him think, watch him calculate, you're just being dragged with him from one crisis to the next. Trim a couple of those threads and you've got something leaner and arguably more devastating. As it stands, there are passages where I felt exhausted rather than tense, and those are different sensations.

But then the ending arrives, and it's absolutely stunning. I won't say a word about what happens, but it hit me with the same gut-punch weight as the closing act of Carlito's Way. That same tragic momentum, the feeling that you could see it coming and couldn't do a thing about it. It's the kind of ending that reframes everything you've just watched and makes you sit very still for a minute before you can talk again. A film that sticks its landing that well earns a lot of forgiveness for whatever wobbles came before.

It also got me thinking about how rarely we see performers genuinely surprise us. This pairs in an interesting way with Pacifiction, another film built on a central performance of slow-burning, coiled unease, though that one operates at almost the opposite pace to the Safdies' relentless sprint. Both films are, in their own very different ways, about men who can't quite escape the worlds they've built around themselves.

Four stars. A brutal, brilliant piece of work, slightly overloaded but unforgettable. And if anyone ever tells you Adam Sandler can't act, sit them down in front of this and let it do the arguing for you.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 2019  | Watched: 2025-04-19

View on Letterboxd →

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More with Adam Sandler: Mr. Deeds (2002) · Big Daddy (1999)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)