Uncut Gems review: chaotic good

If thrillers tend to follow a narrative arc that looks like a curve, the Safdie brothers prefer one shaped like a coil. Their excellent new film, Uncut Gems, is an unnerving story of spiraling bad decisions and escalating violence. It’s also equal parts about gambling, Judaism, and Adam Sandler’s goatee.

The stakes are set from the movie’s opening scene where a mining accident in Ethiopia (complete with a flash of exposed shin bone) enables two thieves to sneak out a rare opal that will end up in the hands of Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a New York jeweler with a penchant for ostentatious ice. Need a jeweled Furby? See Ratner.

Like any tragic New Yorker, Ratner is a Knicks fan. But when Celtics center Kevin Garnett rolls through his...

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