Directed by The Safdie Bros
Release Date - December 25, 2019
Set in the diamond district of New York City, Howard Ratner, a jewelry store owner and dealer to the rich and famous, must find a way to pay his debts when his merchandise is taken from one of his top sellers and girlfriend.
Yesss! Been waiting for this one and they delivered with that trailer :bravo:
Larry "Ratso" Sloman at 0:04! Legend.
Oh my goodness, 2 full-blown PDL references in that trailer. (Blue suit and dolly shot of running.)
it's wild to think that the Safdies alone now represent the gritty and cinematic side of nyc, which for so long was expressed by so many types of people. now it's the Safdies
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5wLiy1l40B/
Uncut When. :yabbse-sad:
Uncut this weekend for me :)
in a social cultural context i can read the room thusly: it's this year's The Florida Project, the film that's emblematic of the highest achievements of cinema from the perspective of art, reality, and coolness, which would have previously been Good Time also, but that was the year of The Florida Project
Absolutely wild. A kaleidoscopic spiral into worlds were aren't privy to
Highly recommend
Julia Fox and KG are breakout stars.
Loved it. It's almost comic to see the Safdies take their insular aesthetic and stretch it to the absolute limit of ambition(almost to the point to where you wonder where they go from here?). Feels like a lot of people coming together at their peak, which is rare and always a great to see. Just the perfect mix of actor and material here. The Safdies have such great eyes for faces, there's so many great mugs in this, and we get to see them all in extra close-up. Julia Fox is a fox. A masterpiece of uninhibited energy and sound design.
i'll pile on too—fucking loved this. what came to mind immediately after was that this was like if altman did his version of after hours, crossed with a serious man. darius khondji man... what i would give to see him do something with malick. brilliant work.
This stressed me the fuck out. Makes Good Time feel like It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Woman next to me was on the verge of a meltdown the entire time. Yeah I loved it. Where will the Safdies go next?
Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooved this. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.
How 'Uncut Gems' and Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Punch-Drunk Love' Function as Unlikely Companion Pieces (https://www.slashfilm.com/uncut-gems-and-punch-drunk-love/)
QuoteWith Uncut Gems now in theaters, the Safdie's appreciation of Punch-Drunk Love is bound to become a frequent talking point. Sandler's performance as jeweler Harry Ratner is already garnering Academy Award buzz – or, at the bare minimum, outrage about its Golden Globe snub – and the Safdie brothers seem poised to cross over to mainstream audiences in a way that not even the Robert Pattinson-starring Good Time could make happen. And yet, despite a well-documented love for Anderson's film, both Josh and Benny Safdie are quick to point out that any parallels between the two features are less overt than they may seem.
(Discussion with spoilers at link).
There's a spoiler about The Weeknd that isn't really a spoiler, if you want my opinion.
https://twitter.com/Ethan_Anderton/status/1208055022614913032
https://twitter.com/Ethan_Anderton/status/1208087236190916609
https://twitter.com/Ethan_Anderton/status/1208069781951254529
https://twitter.com/A24/status/1208101439865790464
That interview is up.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6uyOn6h4qVBQOGJH6qtOD2?si=jaC-9bL5SR2dBdZBNgi8eA (https://open.spotify.com/episode/6uyOn6h4qVBQOGJH6qtOD2?si=jaC-9bL5SR2dBdZBNgi8eA)
oh, shit. we could've all been together on this one except i'm the problem. swear to god that i don't like conspire to do this
um i just wanna s/o to the Ronald Bronstein component within this. he's the cowriter and coeditor. Daddy Longlegs (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1426362/) is an essential element within the recipe
I don't know if another movie has stressed me out so much. My heart still hasn't recovered a few hours later. I have some criticisms with the characters which I will list below, but even so I loved the movie.
Julia Fox's character was kind of a male fantasy. She's just there to serve Howard—it's confusing that she wants to come back to him and tattoo his name on her ass after he's such an insufferable dick. It's possible that I could have bought it more if her character/motivation was more fleshed out.
Also, the big breakdown scene with them crying was...fine. I don't think it hit the emotional high they were going for.
I thought the ending was perfect.
Just watched this and
Pleasure of Being Robbed on CC. Enjoyed both but Longlegs was the revelation- I think it's a better film than
Good TimeQuote from: jenkins on December 23, 2019, 06:37:00 PM
oh, shit. we could've all been together on this one except i'm the problem. swear to god that i don't like conspire to do this
um i just wanna s/o to the Ronald Bronstein component within this. he's the cowriter and coeditor. Daddy Longlegs (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1426362/) is an essential element within the recipe
this trailer highlights Adam Sandler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akKdBkmugEI
My recent travails into the Safdie catalog had me wondering, as I was rewatching this, if perhaps there was a Heaven Knows What-esque version of this. One in which the Howard character is played by a real diamond dealer with an unknown supporting cast, shot down and dirty on 16mm. It's interesting to think about, but I don't necessarily think it would be a better film; part of the reason the movie works is the tension between the Safdie-verse and the Sandler-verse (also the reason why Punch-Drunk Love is so great). The way they play with the manchild sports-loving public persona, the trope of the unrealistically attractive girlfriend, Jewish "homeboy" posturing, etc.
Another question that is worth asking - why does it seem that with the exception of maybe Sean Baker, the Safdies are the only American directors really interested in the realities of living in this country today?
Quote from: putneyswipe on January 12, 2020, 03:45:12 PMAnother question that is worth asking - why does it seem that with the exception of maybe Sean Baker, the Safdies are the only American directors really interested in the realities of living in this country today?
You and me, brother (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=13154.msg337693#msg337693)
Quote from: wilder on January 12, 2020, 05:01:23 PM
Quote from: putneyswipe on January 12, 2020, 03:45:12 PMAnother question that is worth asking - why does it seem that with the exception of maybe Sean Baker, the Safdies are the only American directors really interested in the realities of living in this country today?
You and me, brother (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=13154.msg337693#msg337693)
It seemed for a while we could rely on Fincher, but then he retreated.
Which filmmaker/director was talking about how it's "easier" to set films in pre-cellphone era(s)? Makes it easier to set up conflict/drama, etc?
Pretty much all of them.
Quote from: wilder on January 12, 2020, 05:01:23 PM
Quote from: putneyswipe on January 12, 2020, 03:45:12 PMAnother question that is worth asking - why does it seem that with the exception of maybe Sean Baker, the Safdies are the only American directors really interested in the realities of living in this country today?
You and me, brother (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=13154.msg337693#msg337693)
Your list highlights this, but there's Baumbach. Eighth Grade, too, I thought did a good job of stylizing itself within genre while depicting the reality of youth + social media insecurity. Linklater? Last Flag Flying, Boyhood, and the Before Trilogy, at least. Soderbergh's Netflix films, although focused on niche communities, have that same goal, I seems.
The Safdies version of "Couch"
Saddest shit I've ever seen. Life is tough out there.
I was waiting for it to end with Scotty Doesn't Know, though. Glad they are diverse in their sources of inspiration!
Quote from: Fuzzy Dunlop on January 16, 2020, 03:48:49 PM
The Safdies version of "Couch"
As in it's the peak of their career?
I won't be there but
Knocked out of the fairfax cinemas opening
35mm print headed to new bev
Q&a with bros
Double with the object of beauty
http://thenewbev.com/program/february-6-uncut-gems-the-object-of-beauty/
Not surprisingly a great performance by Adam
Sandler. I personally feel his performance in PDL is ok but I think he definitely has grown as an actor.
whoa hello old friend!
The high-tech secret behind the stunning cinematography of 'Uncut Gems' (https://www.inputmag.com/features/uncut-gems-secret-cinematography-light-ranger-2)
QuoteThat sensation of constant propulsive force was a tonal must for the film, but the Safdie brothers' particular filmmaking methods made that a unique challenge. The co-directors get some of their best material by fostering a sense of spontaneity, so they eschew marks — electrical-tape X's on the floor tipping off actors on where to stand — and encourage free movement about the set. They also believe that actors work best when hulking machines aren't all up in their faces, so they prefer to situate their cameras far from a scene's action and shoot using super-long zoom lenses. "The margin of error in these extreme closeups is less than an inch," says Chris Silano, Khondji's A-camera assistant on Uncut Gems.
[...]
That would be Howard Preston, the inventor of the Light Ranger and a friendly guy who's modest about his estimable achievements. Preston Cinema Systems has been expanding the frontiers of what cameras can do since the late 1980s, a time when the changeover to video had experts rethinking a lot of what they'd taken for granted. Preston envisioned a way to improve on the autofocus system for both analog and digital cameras. "Something affordable, viable for on-set use, something that could fit in a case," Preston says. "The idea was a device that someone already handling the work of adjusting focus could use, which wouldn't require a specialist on the payroll."
Throughout the 1990s, Preston produced three beta versions of what he'd dub the Light Ranger. (The name refers to the pulse of infrared light used by "time of flight" cameras.) It made the work of keeping a subject in clear view simpler and more intuitive. "The puller" — the person working the knob that keeps the images onscreen in focus — "could simply press a button, and as long as he kept the crosshair on a subject, they'd stay in focus," Preston says. "It was purely mechanical."
The most prominent early usage of the Light Ranger 1 took place on Without Limits, a 1998 sports drama about distance runners. The renowned Conrad L. Hall had signed on as director of photography, and found the Light Ranger tremendously useful in calibrating on-the-move closeups of running legs.
Also impressed was Tom Cruise, who'd stepped in as producer on the film while gearing up for Eyes Wide Shut with Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick had already achieved legend status among gear nerds for using ultra-rare lenses acquired from NASA to shoot 1975's Barry Lyndon by candlelight, and Cruise rightly assumed the Light Ranger would be of interest to the auteur.
"Eyes Wide Shut, heh, that's a fun story," Preston chuckles. "Stanley gave me a call, which was quite a surprise. I was incredulous, naturally. I spent a few weeks with him in London during the filming, and that was a wonderful experience. But we couldn't make it work, because his approach changed quite a bit from the time of our chat to when he actually began shooting. He ended up using lenses that didn't necessitate so much of the Light Ranger. We had a conversation about putting this to work on his next film, but unfortunately, he never got the chance." (Kubrick died in 1999, prior to the release of Eyes Wide Shut.)
I think this is the best acceptance speech I've ever seen.
https://youtu.be/ihalG3Rw_QA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRV2COxEapo
This legend was snubbed for his authentic performance as "Holly Roller."