It’s Adam Sandler Against The World In The Anxiety-Inducing First Trailer For ‘Uncut Gems’

There is perhaps no-one better at falling apart onscreen than Adam Sandler.

Over the course of his decades-long career, the comedian has perfected the art of collapsing in on himself. Sometimes he does that for serious, thoughtful directors — as in the extraordinary Punch-Drunk Love — and sometimes he does that as a manchild forced to go back to kindergarten, as in the modern masterpiece Billy Madison. But regardless of specific context, no other living actor can scream themselves into distraught pieces in quite the same way.

All of which only makes the forthcoming Uncut Gems that much more of an enticing proposition.

The new film’s the brainchild of Josh and Benny Safdie. They might be best known to you as the sibling team behind Good Time, which sent a scuzzy Robert Pattinson on a nocturnal odyssey to save his brother after a robbery gone wrong.

Uncut Gems follows a similarly intense, neon-lit trajectory. In it, Sandler plays a jeweller named Howard who loans out an extremely expensive gem to one of his top clients. When the client runs off with the gem, Howard must deal with his aggrieved creditors, all while trying to hunt the gem down.

If that plot summary hasn’t got you excited yet, then maybe the reviews out of Toronto International Film Festival might. The film has been heralded as the Safdie Brothers’ masterpiece, with Josh Lewis of The Film Stage calling it, “as light-on-its-feet as it is deceitfully upsetting.”

Elsewhere, Sandler has been singled out for particular praise, with Benjamin Lee of The Guardian calling the comedic actor’s new dramatic turn “towering”, and the best of his career.

Basically, don’t be too surprised if Happy Gilmore himself becomes one of the Oscar frontrunners this year.

Watch the trailer below. Uncut Gems doesn’t have an Australian release date yet — keep your fingers crossed that we won’t have to wait months for it, as we did with Good Time.