Having been praised by movie reviewers left, right and centre after premiering this weekend, Adam Sandler's new film Uncut Gems has managed to get itself an impressive 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Sure, Sandler movies aren't exactly renowned for being highbrow fare - more so the type of fodder that's good for a laugh on a Sunday evening as your hangover eases - but his latest is different, it seems.
Directed by Benny and Josh Safdie, Uncut Gems premiered at the Telluride Film Festival over the weekend ahead of its December release.
Advert
The synopsis listed on Rotten Tomatoes reads: "From acclaimed filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie comes an electrifying crime thriller about Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a charismatic New York City jeweller always on the lookout for the next big score. When he makes a series of high-stakes bets that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime, Howard must perform a precarious high-wire act, balancing business, family and encroaching adversaries on all sides, in his relentless pursuit of the ultimate win."
While we don't yet have a trailer to whet our appetites, it's starting to look like we won't need one to build any sense of hype, as the critics' first reactions are very positive indeed - so positive, in fact, that the film already has a 100 percent rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
Noting how audiences have been comparing the flick to 'a cocaine rush', Variety critic Peter Debruge said in his write-up: "Uncut Gems feels like being locked inside the pinwheeling brain of a lunatic for more than two hours - and guess what: It's a gas!"
Variety Fair's K. Austin Collins, meanwhile, praised Sandler's performance, gushing: "I'm a longtime fan of Sandler, and of his schtick; I know his grab-bag of gestures and jokes as well as any other living actor's. And yet I wasn't prepared for Uncut Gems, which pushes his comic persona far toward the malicious insecurities that have long given Sandler his fire."
Advert
Eric Kohn from Indiewire also loved the film, writing: "Uncut Gems won't sit well with anyone who prefers protagonists easy to like or stories with a clean moral compass.
"But there's a genuine subversive glee involved in following Howard through his inane quest for all the money he can score, and watching him set himself up for failure with such conviction the whole way through."
Uncut Gems is released in the US on 25 December. Merry Christmas!
Topics: Adam Sandler, Entertainment, TV and Film