The Safdie brothers' last film, "Good Times," was shortlisted for Cannes competition, and although it ended up empty-handed, the Cannes platform has expanded the popularity of the two American directors who started out as independent films. On the other hand, they also seem to have figured out how to make independent films into commercial entertainment. The first thing is to find a star to play the leading role and attract everyone's attention. The last one was Robert Pattinson. This time, "Rough Diamonds" recruited Adam Sandler, who is good at interpreting vulgar comedy. Although the protagonist is also a comedy character, Sandler ignores his image and uses an odd accent. The interpretation of the book, which can reasonably switch between seriousness and black humor, is quite expressive.
Despite stardom and a generous budget, the Safdie brothers didn't fully commit to making a purely commercial film. Their shooting philosophy and purpose are the same as that of fellow director Sean Baker, who, after his small-budget "Orange" shot to fame, "Florida Paradise" still focuses on the fate of marginalized people and the treatment of social injustice. criticism. Coincidentally, the Safdie brothers' new work has similarities with Sean Baker's previous "Broadway Prince", one is a Jewish jewelry store owner, and the other is an African-American peddler who sells fakes. They both struggled to make a living on the fringes of the New York metropolis.
There are many works about African-American groups in American films, but it seems that there are few themes that positively depict Jewish immigrants, and it is even rarer to really capture the complex human nature of the Jews in New York. It is estimated that the inspiration for this story and the director The brothers' family backgrounds are related. In the film, the Jewish boss looks good and has a carefree life on the surface, but in fact he is addicted to gambling and heavily in debt. The audience may not have much affection for this noisy gambler, but what cannot be ignored is that this time the director did not just focus on this insatiable Jew, but used the clue of diamonds to bring out the whole chain of the globalized economy. The mode of operation of commodities under the hood, and all kinds of bizarre phenomena caused by it in American society. This kind of intentional or unintentional plot makes this author's film full of mania and despair completely different from the pattern of the director's previous works. Pure individual fatalism.
The diamond itself carries the history of the blood and tears of the Africans who mined it, and it came to the hands of the mercenary Jewish businessman. Naturally, it was worth a lot of money, and it was also the inducement of its gambler mentality. The most ironic thing is that this rough diamond eventually fell into one. The hand of an African-American basketball star is involved in the sports world that controls the lifeline of the American economy. This journey of rough diamonds, which started with Africans, ended with Africans, secretly revealing the blood connection between diamonds and Africans, whether material or spiritual, with Jews as intermediaries. , grabbing huge profits and wealth in the vigorous development of globalized economy and trade, but also paying for its own expanding desire and greed.
Beginning with "Good Times", the Safdie brothers' author style began to move closer to Scorsese's early crime noir films, which seems to be the appearance of "Uncut Diamond" showing a strong type of plot-driven narrative, creating unexpected surprises for the audience. Theatrical rhythm and entertainment meaning. But they still haven't completely abandoned the new wave aesthetics since their debut, "The Pleasure of Being Heist," and their constant tribute to their idol, John Cassavetes. The hand-held camera follows the protagonist anxiously wandering around the New York jewelry market and Jewish living quarters. The lens captures the delicate and vivid close-up of the characters in the limited space, and constructs a slightly dizzying mise-en-scene (the office scene is the most outstanding). And the retro psychedelic electronic style established from "Heaven Knows" is used more freely this time, filling the unsettled and overloaded atmosphere for the action scenes without dialogue, overshadowing the human voice in the occasion of dialogue, and rendering the characters crazy Restless mind. The echo between the beginning and the end of the film is quite amazing. The lens penetrates deep into the diamond like a microscope, goes to the empty universe and then to the colonoscope of the human body. At the end, it drills through the bullet hole of the body and then goes to the empty universe starry sky. Sublimation of the theme again.
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