Diary… Sandler does good schmuck

~ Billy Mann

‘Uncut Gems’ is an immersive and intensely claustrophobic film

🔹To the Barbican to see another film about winning and losing.

‘Uncut Gems’ is relentlessly intense and claustrophobic. There is an awful lot of talking (plus mumbling) and the deep-city environment is heavy and immersive.

You feel right inside each scene, be it on the street, in a club, at a Jewish family dinner or on the inside of a dodgy dealer’s jewellery empire.

Adam Sandler, dodgy dealer

The lead, played by Adam Sandler, pulls of that rare trick of being a dislikeable character that, for reasons you can never quite work out, you end up rooting for.

He is a schmuck more than a bad guy, ducking and diving, lying and gambling, in search of the winning bet that will be his salvation. He’s a bit like us all, in one way or another.

The film is made by Netflix, who have today been accused of tax dodging, so there might be something about art imitating life in that.

🔹This screenshot kind of speaks for itself.

🔹And the headline alone on this story about Storm Brendan is worthy of a share because it goes straight to the visual imagination.

The video is a bonus

🔹Love Island is trending on Twitter and Spurs beat Middlesbrough 2-1 in the FA Cup.

🔹Many years ago when out on an icy night in Soho, a careless taxi driver nearly ran over my wife Jane. 

I was so angry I kicked the door of his black cab. Ever since, my right big toe occasionally gets swollen and painful and I hobble around looking for pity. 

Today is one of those days.

I signal my discomfort by explaining that I am suffering from “a touch of Taxi Toe”.

Published by Billy Mann

I'm originally from Liverpool and worked as a national magazine journalist for more than 30 years before suffering a stroke at age 53. I started blogging as part of a neuro-rehabilitation programme and wrote the very first entries with one finger of my disabled left hand. Later, art became another therapy for me at Headway East London's Submit To Love studios. I blog regularly and volunteer as a teaching assistant, coaching schoolchildren in aspects of journalism.