The Chaos of Uncut Gems

(Spoilers for Uncut Gems follow)

We open on the Welo Mine in Ethopia. The year is 2010. From a bird’s eye view of the mine we can see that there is some sort of commotion. A cut to a close-up of one miner’s bloody, broken leg answers our question as to what is going on. The miners are furious and clash with the foremen, most likely releasing their pent-up frustration at having to endure poor working conditions. We see two miners in the crowd who are not as furious as the others. They quietly slip away from the commotion and head into the tunnels. Clearly they have been waiting for an opportunity to go in unseen. They chip away at a wall until a rock breaks free. As one of the miners holds the rock in his hands we can see that there is a beautiful gem embedded in the rock. The camera zooms in on the gem until we enter the gem entirely. As the camera swirls around inside the gem we see objects that resemble celestial bodies. It is as if we are in a spaceship taking a trip around the universe. After some time the objects begin to take on a fleshy exterior and we are led down a fleshy tunnel. This odd transition has brought us to the colonoscopy of Howard Ratner in New York City in the year 2012. The cosmic colonoscopy is just a taste of the insanity that will be experienced throughout the rest of Uncut Gems, directed by Josh and Benny Safdie.

With such a bizarre opening like this you would think that Uncut Gems would be a film that is far removed from reality. Indeed, the chaos from the opening continues throughout the film, never letting the viewer catch their breath. Despite the chaotic nature of the film, Uncut Gems is a sane and lucid interpretation of how people try to make sense of the chaos and take control in a universe that is out of their control. The cosmic element in the opening and in other parts of film remind us of the universe at large but the rest of the film is concerned with what is more immediate to Howard, mainly his exploits with money. Money, because we can quantify it, looks like something that can add order our chaotic world. Acquiring money, therefore, can be a way of taking control. However, even money and the processes that involve it have unordered elements to them, elements that Howard fails to anticipate.

Uncut Gems follows Howard Ratner, a jeweller in New York City. Howard buys the rock seen in the opening, a black opal, with the hope of making a hefty profit. In addition to this, he faces pressure from a man named Arno, who he owes money to, and his enforcers. Howard is a big basketball fan and likes to bet on games. He is very excited when Kevin Garnett, a player for the Boston Celtics, shows up at his jewellery store. He shows Garnett the opal. Garnett immediately feels a mystical connection to the opal and wants to buy it. Howard refuses but agrees to let him hold onto it for some time and takes Garnett’s championship ring as collateral. The only reason that Howard lets Garnett borrow the opal is because Garnett says his connection to the opal is making him feel like he can drop 40 or 50 points in the next game. Right after he lets Garnett borrow the opal he goes to pawn the championship ring for $21,000 so he can bet on the game that Garnett was talking about.

Howard has a gambling addiction. Addiction entails a loss of control. The person who has an addiction may not always be aware of this (“I can quit at any time”). With gambling there is a sense that if you can correctly predict an outcome you have some sort of mastery over, or expert knowledge about some aspect of the physical world. Howard fancies himself as such a person. When he places the bet he does it with the assurance of someone who is “in the know”. He makes the first bet because Garnett feels like he is going to have a big game. However, Garnett having a big game is not guaranteed. Even the best players have off nights. Howard ends up winning the bet which gives him a sense of control. He overestimates how much of the result was due to his “knowhow” and not due to chance.

The goons following Howard around is a constant reminder to him and to us that he is not in control. Howard resists them at every turn because to do the opposite is unthinkable. To give up and let these outside forces completely overcome him would be unbearable. It would mean he is not a big game player. We see the resistance to outside forces not just in the content of Uncut Gems but also in its form, mainly the sound. Howard’s voice constantly competes with other voices that are in the background. As the main character, his voice is not always prioritized over the cacophony of voices. People that speak about how anxious Uncut Gems makes them often talk about this aspect of the sound. The sound produces an effect that does not allow the viewer to relax. Howard is the protagonist that the viewer identifies with on some level so having his voice constantly competing with other voices means they don’t get a moment of respite just like Howard.

Another way that Howard tries to take control is by auctioning off the opal. He bought the opal for $100,000 and plans to sell it for $1,000,000. Naturally, the auction does not go as planned. The people in charge of the auction value the opal at around $200,000 which infuriates Howard. Howard then gets his friend to keep bidding on the opal so that Garnett will buy it at a higher price. This plan backfires as Garnett decides that the price is too high for him. Howard has to pay back his friend for buying the opal and the auction ends up being a big waste of time. He does end up selling the opal to Garnett anyway but the $65,000 profit is too meager for him. No doubt some viewers will relate to how the auction went. When things make perfect sense to us as being valued at a certain price but end up being grossly over or undervalued we become aware that even our immediate world may not be as ordered as we thought. The processes involving money can often be wildly unpredictable. With this in mind, however, we push on and try to take control in any way we can.  

It is interesting that Howard went through all that just to sell the opal to Garnett because Garnett was the first person who was interested in buying the opal. Howard could have saved all those headaches by just selling to Garnett in the first place. Simple transactions like that, however, don’t suffice in this chaotic world. You either go big or go home. Like Garnett, Howard is a big game player in his own way. He says as much to Garnett when he sells him the opal. When Garnett points out how he shortchanged the Ethiopian miners by buying the opal for $100,000 when he thinks its worth ten times that, he states that because he’s not an athlete he has to play this way. He asks Garnett if he “wants to win by 1 point or 30”. He has to play big. This is how he wins. The conversation that they’re having is the one during which Howard decides to place the last big bet. Howard talks about how the bookies in Vegas are underestimating Garnett before the big game. It is clear to see that Howard is still bitter about the opal being undervalued. It is this bitterness that stirs him to place the bet. This feeling of being told by outside forces what’s what despite his expertise is a feeling that he believes both he and Garnett share. Both him and Garnett must take control in spite of these forces (Garnett must have a great game and Howard must win big).

Howard tries to take control but his mounting debts mean he is not in control. You would think that this would make him morose but he does seem to enjoy what he is doing up until his breakdown after the auction. Despite the debts, Howard still gets a thrill from placing the bets and watching the games. As an addict, enjoyment is still a possibility but the enjoyment is far from safe. There is always a possibility that the enjoyment goes too far. Howard is no exception. After he has sent Julia on her way to place the last big bet he has two chances to stop it. Arno and the goons try to get him to call Julia to get her to come back with the money. He refuses to make the call. When the goons tell him to let them out of the jewellery store he locks them in the little antechamber that customers have to wait in so they can be buzzed in to the store. Julia makes it in time to place the bet and the game starts. As the game goes on it is clear that Howard is nervous but he is also thrilled. For the moment he has some semblance of control. The antechamber that Arno and the goons are locked in has glass walls so they are forced to watch Howard watch the game. Howard is elated after every point and rebound that KG gets and makes sure to let the others know that he knew all along how the current events are happening. He also enjoys taunting the others any chance he gets, especially the most aggressive of the goons, Phil. When the game finishes and Howard wins the bet he is euphoric. He took a big swing and he hit it out of the park. Something goes right for him amidst all the chaos. That’s why what happens next is so shocking. When Howard finally lets the others out of the antechamber Phil immediately shoots him in the head.

What do we make of this development? What do we make of the fact that Howard had something go his way but ends up dead? It would not be unusual to be frustrated with the way Uncut Gems ends. The character that we have identified with all this time ends up dead out of nowhere. My reaction to this ending is not one of frustration. Although I’m unsure if I would have ended the story in this way I think the ending makes sense. I’ve been talking about control and how Howard thinks he has control but ultimately does not. With this in mind the ending does not come out of nowhere. We can look at the last big bet and Howard’s death as the ultimate loss of control for an addict: the overdose. An overdose occurs when someone takes a lethal dose of a substance. Obviously in the immediate physical sense, this is not what happens to Howard. This is, however, what happens to him in the metaphorical/symbolic sense. The last bet is the bet that goes too far. It is Howard’s disregard for the money he owes and his constant taunting of Phil that contributes to his death. His enjoyment is too much this time.

One thing to note here is that I’m not saying that addicts will always ultimately lose control and die. Many addicts manage to stay sober and lead fulfilling lives. What I’m saying is that by using addiction as a trope the Safdie brothers effectively convey the false sense of control that we think we have in this chaotic world. The directors invoke images of the universe at the beginning with the cosmic colonoscopy and at the end when the camera travels inside the bullet hole in Howards head. The universe is often thought of as something that is chaotic, random and indifferent when it comes to human beings. It is interesting that these invocations of the universe are done through Howard’s body. By linking him with the chaotic, random and indifferent universe and showing his addictive struggle against it, the Safdies try to articulate what many of us feel. How could we possibly wrap our heads around the insanity that goes on around us and what can we even do in the face of this insanity?