Have you ever wondered what it must be like to be strapped to the front of a bullet train?
I reckon it's probably as stressful as watching Adam Sandler grapple with a gambling addiction in the Safdie Brothers' 'Uncut Gems'.
Sandler turns in his strongst performance of his career as a New York jeweller drowning in debt in Benny and Josh Safdie's combustible thriller - even managing to outdo his career best in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Punch Drunk Love'.
The Safdies' movie is a rollercoaster ride from start to finish, beginnibg with Ethiopian miners hewing a rock containing precious gems which will subsequently be smuggled into the US in a box of fish to Sandler's wideboy Howard Ratner.
In a cheeky move, the Safdies' camera dives and sweeps through the contents of the rock only to eventually emerge through the magic of CGI as the contents of a scan of Ratner's colon.
While awaiting the results of the scan, Howard is juggling several hand grenades in his life.
The jeweller believes he has pulled off the deal of the century by sourcing the rock from Ethiopia and hopes auction to it for $1 million.
This would solve all his money problems.
However, the extent of his debts soon becomes clear when Keith Williams Richard's Phil and Tommy Kominick's Nico turn up at his store, slapping him in front of his customers and demanding the payment of the $100,000 he owes his loan shark brother-in-law, Eric Bogosian's Arno.
On top of that, Howard has a mistress, Julia Fox's Julia who lives in his downtown Manhattan apartment and he has agreed with his increasingly alienated wife, Idina Menzel's Dinah they will officially separate after Passover and he will leave his family.
Howard's worst vice, however, is his obsession with basketball and addiction to gambling - a toxic mix that results in his tendency to place huge spread bets on NBA games.
He is over the moon when Lakeith Stanfield's fixer Demany arranges a visit to his store by the Boston Celtics Kevin Garnett, who plays himself.
Howard hopes to persuade Garnett to buy some merchandise but when he boasts about the rock, the basketball star asks to see it and is immediately smitten, believing it might bring him luck in his next game.
The jeweller insists it is not for sale but reluctantly agrees to lend it to Garnett on condition that he gives him one of his NBA rings for security and returns the rock the next day.
When Garnett fails to materialise with the stone the next day after a stellar game, it sends Howard into a spiral as he obsessively tries to hunt down Demany to find out what is happening.
With Arno and his goons hassling him for repayment of his loans, even turning up at his teenage daughter's high school play, Howard gets increasingly twitchy about Garnett and Demany not returning the rock.
As the pressure mounts, will Demany deliver the rock? And will Howard emerge from the ordeal unscathed?
Like their previous thrller 'Good Times' with Robert Pattinson, 'Uncut Gems' is an exercise in making a desperate situation accelerate into a huge crisis.
A throwback to the hard boiled, paranoiac New York films of the 1970s, the Safdies evoke the spirits of Sidney Lumet, John Cassavetes, Brian de Palma, John Frankenheimer and Martin Scorsese.
But the movie's success hinges on Sandler's performance who shoulders responsibility for the film and impressively spits fire and mispkaced optimism as a desperate man engulfed by his own failings.
It is a powerhouse performance from Sandler which was remarkably ignored in the Academy Awards.
The Safdies also extract cracking supporting performances from the rest of the cast in this souped up, turbo charged exercise in realism.
Stanfield, Garnett, Menzel, Bogosian, Williams Richard and Kominick deliver believable, lived in performances and it is a real joy to see Judd Hirsch shine as Howards father-in-law Gooey who gets suckered into one of his desperate attempts to wriggle out of a real bind.
The star making performance, however, comes from Julia Fox, in a role that Marisa Tomei might once have played, as a young woman who is hooked on her love for Howard.
The other star turn is from the Iranian cinematographer Darius Khondji who embraces the Safdies' sense of urgency and requirement for mixing garish and gritty images.
Khondji uses 35mm and digital cameras and anamorphic lenses to capture the frantic action.
Sometimes his camera even spies on the action from afar, as in a sequence where Howard and Julia argue after attending a nightclub appearance by The Weeknd.
Other times there are tracking shots, zooms and tight close-ups which are deployed to heighten a sense of claustrophobia.
Khondji's dazzling array of shots are all knitted together by Ronald Bronstein and Benny Safdie's thrilling editing - Bronstein co-wrote the screenplay with the Safdies too.
And again, you are left wondering how a script as strong as 'Uncut Gems' did not even get a look-in in the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Oscars.
Nevertheless, credit must go to Netflix for bringing a movie that may have languished on the arthouse circuit to the attention of mainstream audiences.
Although, it has to be said, 'Uncut Gems' best works on the cinema screen
2020 may well turn out to be another year when audiences are mesmerised by dazzling, high octane acting performances.
However few will come close to what Sandler pulls off in 'Uncut Gems'.
With the comedian due to team up again with the Safdies on a street performer tale 'Goldman v Silverman', his performance as Howard Ratner serves a reminder of what he could achieve if he is prepared to jettison the deluge of lazy comedies that have dominated his career.
The film has also brought the Safdies from being an emerging force in US Independent cinema into the mainstream, with audiences eager to see what they do next.
Here's hoping 'Goldman v Silverman' is as blistering as 'Uncut Gems'.
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