Will This Oscar Season Be A Turning Point For These Veteran Film Stars?

Sibling directors Josh and Benny Safdie, who toyed with Robert Pattinson’s matinee-idol image in 2017’s Good Time, know how capitalise on Sandler’s skills in Uncut Gems. Presenting the movie at a screening in Toronto, the Safdie brothers said they wrote the role of Howard Ratner, a New York diamond dealer, specifically for Sandler. He turned it down, then wisely changed his mind. In Sandler’s hands, Howard’s intense unlikeability is almost an afterthought. (The movie begins with his colonoscopy, which is poetic because he’s such an asshole.) Howard lies to his clients, cheats on his wife, disregards his kids. He’s childish, but not in the clownish manner that Sandler usually exhibits.

All id, Sandler wears a smug smile on his face. He’s more gleeful and engaged than we’ve seen in years (The Meyerowitz Stories being an arguable exception). His eyes are wider, his forehead more expressive. Employing their signature kinetic style, the Safdie brothers cede the screen to Sandler’s every move, the camera drifting around him as though he is directing the action. If Murphy’s grin in Dolemite Is My Name is happy-go-lucky, Sandler’s in Uncut Gems is testy-go-lucky. (Coincidentally, the Safdies are reportedly set to direct a remake of Murphy’s breakout movie, 48 Hrs.) 

Were a lesser-known actor to play Howard, Gems might not work. It’s hard to spend two hours in the company of someone that incorrigible without established affection for the person inhabiting him. But here, because Sandler seems so enlivened by the material, it’s a treat to watch him feel his way through Howard’s recklessness — a movie star doing what only a movie star can do.

The same goes for Shia LaBeouf. His role in Honey Boy is direct autobiography, pulling from his volatile life as a child star with an abusive father who once turned a gun on him. As LaBeouf aged, offscreen blunders (street fights, arrests) and oddities (hitchhiking, that paper bag) overshadowed his acting, even though he was often just as feral onscreen (Nymphomaniac, American Honey, Borg vs. McEnroe). It seemed like he was melting down in real time, stricken by PTSD, substance abuse and unrelenting hostility. So he turned his pain into art, writing the script for Honey Boy during rehab.