Emotional devastation is something everyone living through 2020 is too well acquainted with but Kornél Mundruczó’s tearjerking Pieces of a Woman suggests that things can always be worse. The Hungarian White God writer and director paints a tumultuous portrait of a husband and wife undergoing an incredible loss with unflinching precision, using a voyeuristic approach to nestle into their most personal, private moments and translating it to the screen in a novel, wholly disturbing manner. Read More
‘UNCUT GEMS’ Bets Big on Sandman’s Dramatic Chops
The unique genius of the Safdie Bros is that they can put Adam Sandler in one of his best dramatic roles to date and still start the movie with a classic Sandman butthole joke. In Uncut Gems, Sandler plays skeezy jeweler Howard, a Jewish Big Apple resident and compulsive gambler in Manhattan’s Diamond District. We meet Howard via his insides, in the midst of a colonoscopy, and things just get more shit for him from there. Howard owes just about everyone in the city, running up spendy vigs with the local pawn shops, wheeling and dealing with low-rent loansharks, and making sketchy deals with his more mobbed-up acquaintances. Exactly the kind of people you don’t want to owe a penny to. Read More