This tour de force for Adam Sandler, as a desperate New York diamond district hustler, is tense, fast-paced, and earned piles of awards and nominations for him and the movie. Here's Sandler's speech after winning the Best Actor Film Independent Spirit Award for playing Howard Ratner. Idina Menzel makes a few appearances as Mrs. Ratner and model/clothing designer Julia Fox makes her acting debut as Ratner's mistress and jewelry shop employee. Lakeith Stanfield is in a few scenes as one of the underworld characters and basketball star Kevin Garnett plays himself.
The directing team of brothers Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie co-wrote the script with Ronald Bronstein and the action really never lets up. Warning--it's quite violent. Trivia: the Safdies wanted someone Jewish in the leading role, and Sacha Baron Cohen and Jonah Hill and others were considered as well as Sandler.
Cinematographer Darius Khondji does well with the darkness, figuratively and literally.
I'm streaming Daniel Lopatin's exciting soundtrack on Apple Music right now as I type and the score is available on Spotify and more. Track 13, Windows, (here it is on youtube) is particularly good.
Sandler was last blogged for The Meyerowitz Stories, Menzel for Frozen, Stanfield for Sorry to Bother You, and Khondji for Okja. I haven't seen other Safdie brothers movies.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are agreeing with those who award the awards, averaging 92%, but its audiences are less happy, coming in at 52.
Jack and I saw this on the big screen January 2 with Nancy, Dennis, Lynn, and Clay. It's expected to be available for streaming this Tuesday, February 25, 2020.
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