Here’s my “Quick and Dirty Review” of “Uncut Gems.” Nope, unwatchable. I got thirty minutes into this frenetic exercise in yelling, shouting, and people being horrible to each other, topped off by a too-loud music track that drowned out half of what Adam Sandler was saying. Maybe with better production values this would have been an okay film, but the dialogue must have been recorded on set and not ADR/looped in after, as is done in most modern films. Characters were talking over each other, making it nearly impossible to hear what the characters were saying. 2 out of 10.
The directors also refused to use establishing shots or any character back-and-forths, so it was impossible to tell who was talking to whom. Things got better when I turned on the closed captions, but the stressful story didn't improve--it was just Sandler yelling at people or texting angrily. That's not a story. Finally I just started skipping ahead in ten-minute segments, hoping the story would improve. Spoiler--it doesn't. Oh, and that zooming in/zooming out of stuff was just gross. It happens at the start and again at the very end. You know what I'm talking about.
The most interesting part? The first five minutes at the gem mine. One upside--this will be my new "barometer" movie. I'll use it to warn me off of movie lists--you know the ones--that start with something clever like "Ten Modern Film Masterpieces." When they list crapfests like this movie or "The Shape of Water" and "The Master" and snoozers like "Moonlight" and "Drive," then I'll know to move on. Yikes.
