I wasn’t sure I would ever see the day that the Springboks, captained by a black man hailing from the Eastern Cape, lifted the William Webb Ellis trophy.

This is your reminder that you’re a world champion. Go on, watch those tries again – you’ve almost made it through your first week back at work and you deserve this.

Anyway, let’s get back to another thing I thought I may never see – a movie starring Adam Sandler getting rave reviews and, dare we say it, actual Oscar buzz.

The Guardian’s movie critic, Peter Bradshaw, is certainly a massive fan, calling Uncut Gems “the most exciting film of the year”.

If you haven’t yet seen the trailer, let’s recap:

A far cry from Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy, then.

No disrespect to either, because they had their time.

Back to the glowing five-star review:

This sensationally good New York crime drama is rocket-fuelled with greed and crack-fumed with fear. It is directed by the Safdie brothers, Benny and Josh, who create something deliciously horrible, working with their longtime screenwriter-collaborator Ronald Bronstein…

In its unforced, gripping, black-comic chaos, Uncut Gems resembles nothing so much as a super-violent, feature-length episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

As for Sandler’s performance? Gushing:

Sandler’s superb performance shows how [his character, a Manhattan diamond dealer called] Howard has what amounts to a superpower – his optimism, his toxic gift of the gab, his deranged delusional cheerfulness and his refusal to be fazed or scared by things that would reduce ordinary people to jelly…

And all the time the film is in a state of deafening cacophonous uproar: the white noise in poor Howard’s head is displaced into the streets, the clubs, the sports arenas where his terrible humiliation is to be played out. It’s a cinema of pure energy and grungy voltage, and the Safdies make it look very easy. This will be the year’s most exciting film. You can take that to the bank.

Other reviews also rave about the film, with the Independent calling it “the best performance of Adam Sandler’s career” and giving it five stars.

Rolling Stone gives the film 4,5 stars (tough crowd), but adds that “Sandler’s wild ride should net the actor an Oscar”.

For the acceptance speech alone, and the shocked looks from Hollywood heavyweights, I am completely fine with that.

Uncut Gems will South African Netflix on January 31.

[source:guardian]